


The Nightmare after Black Friday

by 20SomethingSuperHeroes



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Ant-Man (2015) Post-Credits Scene, Black Friday, Deadly Premonition, Domestic Fluff, Dreams and Nightmares, F/M, Harry Potter References, Hydra (Marvel), Pre-Civil War (Marvel), SHIELD, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Dinner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-01-21
Packaged: 2018-05-15 06:06:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 42,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5774299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/20SomethingSuperHeroes/pseuds/20SomethingSuperHeroes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Right before the new Avengers break for Thanksgiving, Hydra raises one of its unruly heads in Arizona.  The Scarlet Witch and the Black Widow are assigned to take out the newest base in the mountains near Payson. If nothing goes wrong, then Hillary Tanner and her family are willing to take Wanda and Natasha in for the holiday.  Everything is going perfect...</p><p>Or at least it seems to be.</p><p>Setting: Two weeks after the Avengers return from London</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Jamie had finished giving her report. Brock Rumlow leaned against the back of his chair and took a deep puff of his joint. He used marijuana to ease the pain of the scars and burns that covered his body. Jamie was used to it, but she still crinkled her nose at the smell. 

(She supposed she ought not to complain: it was a dose of a drug derived from crystal meth that had strengthened her powers.)

“A job well done, Agent,” said Rumlow, giving her a smile.

She didn’t like being called ‘agent,’ especially since she no longer worked for S.H.I.E.L.D.. But she said nothing. She had thought he would take the news that the Asset had almost killed her and then escaped with a little less enthusiasm--a lot less, actually--but Rumlow was neither pleased nor displeased. She guessed the pot was part of it.

“Is there anything else you would like to mention?” 

“Just one thing, sir,” said Jamie. “The girlfriend. She referred to the Asset as Bucky.” 

“Did she now?” said Rumlow. Jamie wasn’t sure if he was surprised, but he was definitely amused.

“Do you think that’s significant, sir?” asked Jamie, though she was being partly rhetorical.

“Significant that he’s letting other people call him that? Yes. It’s one thing if Captain Rogers’ friends are referring to him that way--to his Bucky. But it’s another thing if you’re   
Bucky and you’re letting your significant other call you that. It’s not just a pet name at that stage.”

“You think he’s remembering?”

“How could he not be? It’s been a year and a half since he escaped.” Rumlow took another puff and smiled. “But, of course, he remembered before he escaped, too. He knew   
who he was then. You know who he is, right? Captain America’s best friend. His old sidekick. His Bucky. You should go to the Smithsonian sometime. They’ve got a whole wall   
dedicated to him, honoring him like a hero.” Rumlow gave a hearty laugh.

Jamie did not see how that was funny. “There were rumors going around, when S.H.I.E.L.D. fell,” Jamie answered calmly. “Steve told anyone who would listen, and a few of those people spread the word. But nobody believed it. And Steve could never find him, so he couldn’t prove it.”

“Right. And that’s how it’s going to stay,” said Rumlow. “The one person that the Asset cared about is dead. And he isn’t going to allow Captain Rogers or anyone else to find him.”

“And what are we going to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do we keep searching for him?” Jamie inquired.

“Yes, but you not need to concern yourself for him. The effort needs to be scaled back for now. You and the other enhanced support will focus on fighting the Avengers. The command is that we must rebuild Hydra, and we cannot allow Captain Rogers to destroy it again the way he did before Sokovia fell.”

“I see. And the Asset?”

“The Asset will not allow anyone to find him for the time being. But he will grow careless again. And when he does, we will move in. We’ll end his suffering then.”

“But won’t he be put to use?”

“No.”

“Sir, you know the Avengers are too powerful, even for all of the enhanced who work for Hydra.”

“The others are of no concern. But the high command wants Captain America destroyed.”

“And who will be destroying him? You?”

“I’d like to.” Rumlow gave a half-smile, half-grimace of determination, which made his horrific scars looked even more terrifying. Jamie had offered to create an illusion for him that would hide his disfigurement, but he had declined.

“But why not use the Asset?” Jamie asked. “He’s more than a match for the Captain.”

“Yes. But the Asset has also proven that he does not function properly around a certain Avenger who carries a shield. It is a risk we cannot afford to take again. The Captain must die. The high command will decide the fate of the Asset.”

“But what if when we do go after the Asset--?”

“Then we’ll kill two birds with one stone. Simple as that.”

“Did Hydra know he was Captain Rogers’ old friend?”

“Nobody knew. Only Doctor Zola. He didn’t tell anybody else. And he was counting on Captain America being dead.” Rumlow snorted. “That worked out brilliantly.” 

“But you looked into it, though?”

“Yes,” said Rumlow, his smile growing wide. “After what happened. After I saw...I couldn’t help myself. But enough on that subject. You will go to Williams for your orders. And   
Jamie, I’m counting on you to win this time.” There was an edge to his voice that meant he was still disappointed in her.

“As you wish,” she said evenly.

“Cut off one head, two more will take its place. Heil Hydra.”

“Heil Hydra.”


	2. Chapter 2

It had been a long day for the Avengers, and when Natasha and Wanda left the base that evening they were both exhausted.

When Natasha turned the car on, she noticed the radio was off, so she hit the power button. Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” came out of the speakers.

“It’s our jam!” said Wanda, perking up.

“How about that?” said Natasha. She turned up the volume and they drove past the security gate, singing the chorus at the top of their lungs.

Because you know I'm all about that bass  
'Bout that bass, no treble  
I'm all about that bass  
'Bout that bass, no treble...

In Washington, D.C., Hillary Tanner walked through the Director’s suite at the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters carrying a folder of printed reports. No one bothered acknowledging her as she made a beeline for Coulson’s office. Coulson, she knew, was down visiting Statistics. But Coulson wanted the reports on his desk for later, so Hillary knew she could walk right in and leave them on the desk--

Hedwig was perched on the windowsill.

Hillary dropped the folder. Papers went flying all over the room. But Hillary stepped over them and around the desk to open the window. Hedwig hooted at her, and Hillary let her climb onto her jacket sleeve. She could still feel the tips of her talons poking through. 

“Hedwig, it’s so good to see you!” Hillary gasped. “Do you want me to take you to Coulson? He said you would be getting back any time.”

Hedwig hooted at her shrilly. As soon as she was in the room, she hopped off of Hillary’s arm and flew to her perch in the corner.

Hillary sighed and closed the window. She went to the floor and gathered up the papers. They weren’t in any particular order, but she guessed she’d have to warn her boss about that. Hedwig started to preen herself a little bit on her perch. Then she went to the side table where Coulson kept out food and water for her. There was a little bit of water in the dish, probably full of germs, but Hedwig didn’t care.

Hillary placed the stack of papers on Coulson’s desk. “Hedwig, did you bring anything for Coulson?”

Hedwig sat up and hooted at her. Hillary thought she could see something on the owl’s leg. She went over to the table and bent down. There was definitely a letter tied there.  
Hillary undid the string and uncrumpled the paper. The envelope was labeled “To Phil.”

Had Coulson finally done the thing?

Hillary ran out of the office as fast as she could. She waited impatiently on the elevator to the second floor and when she got off Coulson was talking to someone.

Coulson looked up at her. “Yes, Hillary?”

“Hedwig’s come back,” she said, holding out the letter.

Coulson grabbed the letter. He excused himself to the agent he was talking to and turned to leave.

“I got the reports printed out from the International Relations office,” said Hillary. “They’re on your desk. But I, er, dropped them, and they’re all out of order. Just so you know.”

Coulson nodded and mumbled. He was in a daze.

They got onto the elevator and said nothing on the ride back up to the fifth floor.

When they stepped out, Agent Lyman was there.

“Sir, Maria Hill at the Avengers’ base wants you to call her about the Mexico situation.”

“You can call her back and tell her I’ll call her this afternoon,” said Coulson.

Hillary had half a mind to wave her hand in front of her boss’s face to make sure he was there. 

When they got back into the Director’s suite, Coulson went back into his office and closed the door. Hillary checked her Facebook briefly. Then after five minutes Coulson came back out.

“Hillary, I need you to take over for thirty minutes,” said Coulson. “I have an urgent personal matter to attend to.”

“Boss, if it’s personal can it wait until after hours?”

“Hillary, this absolutely cannot wait. You take all the calls and make sure nobody enters my office until I come out. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

Coulson went back into his office.

How long had it been since he’d died? Three years? Three and a half? It was pushing three and a half now.

Hillary answered a personal text. She then got on the computer to answer an email from Agent Amos in Minneapolis.

Mitch Sorensen returned to his desk after a short break. “Hey, what’s up with Coulson?”

“Dunno,” Hillary shrugged. “Hedwig just came back with a letter and he said he didn’t want to be bothered for the next little while. I’ll bet you it’s something to do with the  
Cellist.”

“Cellist? What cellist?”

“Did Coulson never tell you?”

“Nobody tells me stuff.”

“Well, we’ll see when he gets out.”

A half hour stretched into forty-five minutes. And then forty-five minutes became an hour. 

Hillary sighed. She wished Coulson would have waited.

An hour and five minutes after Coulson had shut his office door, Hillary’s phone rang.

“Director’s office, this is Agent Tanner.”

“Tanner! How are you?” It was Agent Parsons in Arizona.

“Doing great,” she said. It’d been a while since she’d heard from him. And last time it hadn’t been good. But it didn’t sound like an emergency. “How are you?”

“I’m doing good,” said Parsons. “May I speak with Director Coulson?”

“He’s tending to a personal matter at the moment. Is there anything I can help you with?”

“I want to speak with him personally.”

“Is it a matter of life and death if you don’t?”

“Well, no,” said Parsons. “If it’s personal...this isn’t about the Cellist, is it?”

“How did you guess?” said Hillary.

“Just intuition. But anyway, I suppose you’re just as good to talk to in this case. There’s been some Hydra activity in Arizona again.”

“Where at?”

“Coburn Creek, near Payson. The Payson police department caught a guy trespassing on a government site. He started shooting at them, and when they caught him he popped a  
cyanide capsule. Idiots didn’t think to search his mouth first--but anyway, his last words were ‘Heil Hydra.’”

“Typical,” said Hillary. “Well, I’m sure Coulson will want to hear all about it.” And she wanted more details, too.

“I sent Clay and Kearns to investigate. They searched the area and found a site that looks like it might be being converted into a base. And Swill sent a drone over it, too. This looks serious.”

“How long has this been going on?”

“The investigation? About a week. I know we should have called sooner but we wanted to be sure.”

“That’s okay,” said Hillary. “I don’t blame you--although Coulson may have a different opinion.”

“I am sending you and Coulson both copies of their reports,” said Parsons. 

“Okay, good. Is my family okay?”

“Yes. They’re fine. The Neils are taking good care of them.”

“I’m sure my family can take care of themselves,” Hillary muttered. “But it’s nice to know you’ve got their backs.”

“Not a problem. Are you coming home for Thanksgiving?”

“I’m not sure yet. But if this situation in Coburn Creek turns out to be something major I just may swing down there.”

“I thought you had a boyfriend down here.”

“Who told you that?”

“Neil.”

“Tell him that’s none of his affair. But I’ll tell Coulson that you called.”

“Thanks, Tanner.”

“Not a problem.”

She hung up.

“Now what?” said Mitch, who’d been listening in on the whole conversation.

“Hydra is screwing around in Arizona again. I may have to go check on my turf,” said Hillary.

“You may want to tell the Avengers.”

“I’ll let Coulson decide that.”

Just then, Coulson’s office door opened. He was looking elated.

Hillary and Mitch both turned around to look at him.

“Well?” said Hillary. “How’d it go?”

“It went good,” said Coulson. “She enclosed her number and Skype name in the letter. She was on her lunch break--she’s got a day job as a re--”

“I get it, I get it,” said Hillary. “And?”

“And she says she wants me to come and see her for Christmas.”

“YES!” Hillary said, doing a double fist-pump.

“That’s great to hear, boss,” said Mitch. “Now what is this about?”

“My old girlfriend, back in Portland,” said Coulson. “Turns out she’s been single ever since I ‘died.’ And she wants me back!” Coulson did a little dance.

“That’s wonderful,” said Hillary. She hated to burst his bubble. “Agent Parsons says he wants you to call him. He says there’s a situation in Arizona we need to check out.” 

“Very well. I’ll do that once’ I’ve looked through those reports you got for me,” said Coulson. “Dang, we need to go out and celebrate.”

“Well, let me know if you think of something,” said Hillary.

“Will do.” Coulson sashayed back into his office. Two minutes later he came back out. “Tanner, why are those reports all mixed up?”

“I dropped them. Would it kill you to re-sort them yourself?”

“Cheek. Well, if there’s one thing I won’t stand for, Agent, it’s unprofessionalism.”

“I tried to warn you but you lost it when you got that letter, sir,” said Hillary. 

Coulson rolled his eyes. “What’s gotten into me?” He closed the office door.


	3. Chapter 3

Fortunately, Coulson’s absent-minded stroke did not last very long. He came to work the next day and reported that he and his lover, Elaine, had had a three-hour Skype call the previous evening. That must have gotten it out of his system anyway. From what Coulson told her Hillary thought she sounded like a nice person. 

But they got right to business. They went to a meeting room and had a Skype conference call with Agent Parsons and the S.H.I.E.L.D. staff in Tempe, Arizona. Hillary was pleased to see everyone again and they spent a minute exchanging pleasantries. That being finished, Agent Marcie Johnson pulled up maps and pictures of the site in Coburn Creek. It was located deep in the forest off an old logging track. And it had all the earmarks of a Hydra base--a land mine in a nearby meadow, security cameras and bomb traps in the trees. “All the bells and whistles,” according to Agent Kearns. In their stakeout, he and Clay hadn’t gotten closer than a spot a few yards away from the logging road before their metal detectors picked up the security cams.

“Question, my uncle has a cabin up there. How far is this from Aspen Road?”

“A good few miles, Agent Tanner,” Parsons assured her. “Trust me, my family has a cabin up there, too. But Hydra took a spot well away from the nearest resort community.”

“In fact,” Agent Swill, spoke up, “the site is located inside the entrance to an abandoned mine. It was never used very much and it gave out quickly.”

Coulson raised his eyebrows. “What kind of a mine?”

“A silver mine, it looks like. The state records show that the mine also gave out trace minerals such as eurekaite.”

“Eurekaite?” Coulson was standing up.

“Boss?” Hillary asked. 

“What’s Eurekaite?” asked Mitch.

“I’ll tell you what it is,” said Coulson. “In a galaxy far, far away--the one where Star Wars takes place, a refined form of Eurekaite produces kyber crystals. Kyber crystals power   
high-energy lasers and are used commonly for weapons. Notable examples: lightsabers and the Death Star’s main gun.”

On the other side of the screen there were looks if disbelief.

“Are you serious?” said Agent Johnson, knitting her eyebrows.

“I’ve never heard anything about Eurekaitie in that galaxy,” said Swill, “and that’s saying something because I’ve read most of of the old Expanded Universe books and comics.”  
“That’s because it would have gone by another name,” said Coulson. “A small detail Earthlings wouldn’t know about. Emily Bridger told me. But she also said that kyber krystals more commonly occurred in their pure form there.”

“Right, your Jedi,” said Agent Clay, folding his arms and nodding.

“I have her lightsaber in my office,” said Coulson. “I could bring it out and show you if you don’t believe me.”

“I perfectly well believe you, Director Coulson,” said Agent Parsons. “But what are the implications of this? Does Hydra know there is Eureakaite in that mine? Would they know how to use it?”

“Anything that S.H.I.E.L.D. knew prior to last April, Hydra also knows,” said Coulson. “It was an online article based on an obscure study that got Emily Bridger to go looking for her own eureakite samples. Emily worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. for almost a whole year before Hydra came out. They knew she was a Jedi with a functioning lightsaber. A little experimentation and the right tools, plus input from a Star Wars expert, and Hydra could create the same thing.”

“Or create a weapon of mass destruction,” said Hillary. “Not a Death Star, but something deadly.”

“I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Hydra moved into that mine,” said Mitch. “It’s pretty out of the way--either they want to be left alone, or they’re up to something. Or both.” 

“You’re right,” said Agent Parsons. “We can’t take that for granted. We can call up a government watch to secure the area.”

“No,” said Coulson. “We’re getting Hydra out of there first. I’m going to call the Avengers. Then you can talk to me about securing the site.”

Coulson authorized Agent Parsons to talk to state and federal agencies to get the area secured after the Avengers had cleared it out. Then just when Coulson was ready to hang up, Agent Swill spoke up.

“By the way, Director, if you don’t mind me asking,” Swill said, “I heard something about you having a pet owl?”

“Who told you that?”

“Just hearsay from someone over at HQ.”

“Well, let me show you, I’ll be right back.” Coulson left the room, muttering darkly about how S.H.I.E.L.D. agents should be penalized for gossiping. Hillary and Mitch made small talk with the Arizona agents while they waited. Coulson came back with Hedwig perched on his gauntlet. The people on the Skype screen were all awed.

“Nice,” said Agent Parsons. It took a lot to impress him.

“She’s beautiful,” said Agent Johnson.

“Thank you,” said Coulson, hefting her up. Hedwig flapped her wings. 

“So is that really Hedwig?” Agent Clay asked, wide-eyed.

“It is indeed,” said Coulson. “Turns out Hydra gave her the same treatment I got. In fact she was the test subject.”

“The Wizarding World,” Clay stammered. “It’s real.”

“But--Coulson, does she belong to you?” asked Agent Kearns.

“Yep. She picked me.”

“Then she’s in good company,” Swill laughed.

“First you’re friends with a real Jedi,” said Kearns. “Now you’ve got Hedwig. What are you going to do next, find the One Ring?”

“You know, I just might,” said Coulson. “At the rate I’m going I’ll have it for Christmas. So you just watch out.”

“Very funny, Director,” said Parsons.

 

Hillary, Mitch, and Coulson went to lunch and afterward the park so Coulson could fly Hedwig around. It was chilly out and all three of them were drinking hot chocolate while outside.

After they got back to the office they did a Skype call with the Avengers. Mitch was in charge of projecting the maps and he had a hard time remembering all the details that Johnson and Swill had shared. Coulson filled him in on the Eurekaite mine. 

“So basically, Hydra’s up to no good, is that right?” said Steve. 

“I should think that was hardly surprising, Cap,” said Coulson. 

“So what do you want us to do?” said Natasha.

“I want you to get them out of there,” said Coulson. 

“What do you recommend?” asked Steve. 

“You could do the full team or maybe just one or two of you. Maybe just one or two. There doesn’t appear to be that big of a group up there. Just shut down their operation.”

“I think a partial attack would be best suited to this operation,” said Vision.

“The question is who to send,” said Steve. “Next week is Thanksgiving.”

“You said this was a full-time job, Captain,” said Rhodey. “I can swing by Stark Tower any old time. You know that.”

“But I just don’t want to interfere with your plans if you’ve already made them,” said Steve thoughtfully.

“You mean you don’t want to interfere with your plans,” said Natasha.

“I’m just going to my cousins in Syracuse,” said Steve. “I don’t have to go far so I can stay in charge of mission controls. Natasha, were you and Wanda planning on going to Bartons’?”

“Barton said he didn’t care either way for Thanksgiving,” said Natasha. “It’s Christmas when he insisted on having us. We’re flexible.”

“I will go, too,” said Wanda, nodding.

“This operation shouldn’t take more than a day or two anyway,” said Coulson. “First we need to get more intel.”

“Agreed,” said Steve. “More accurate mapping, a better layout of their systems. Numbers, weapons, that sort of thing.”

“We can call Agent Parsons up and having him do another recon,” said Hillary. “Let’s see, today is Thursday. Can we have things ready by early next week?”

“Let’s do it,” said Steve.

 

Coulson made a phone call to Tempe to tell Parsons what he needed. He also told Parsons that he had an emergency plan. He told Hedwig to get plenty of food and water.   
“You’re going on a trip.”

When he was leaving the office, he saw Hillary wrapping things up at her computer. “Do you want to come with me to launch Hedwig?” he asked. “I’m sending her to Arizona.”

“Boss, she just got back,” said Hillary.

“Well, did you expect her to lock her up in my office till Christmas?”

“Okay, let me get a few things here,” said Hillary, logging out of her S.H.I.E.L.D. email and turning off her computer. She got her coat, hat, and purse out from under her desk.   
Hedwig watched her from Coulson’s glove. She and Coulson seemed reluctant to be parted again so soon.

“So what are you sending her to Arizona for?” asked Hillary when they were in Coulson’s car, driving to the Potomac River.

“I want to have her out there to keep an eye on things,” said Coulson. He explained the plan to Hillary. “There’s a note with instructions tied to Hedwig’s leg.”

“Sounds great, boss,” said Hillary. “So what do we do? Are we going out there at any point?”

“Depending on how things go,” said Coulson. “I expect Parsons will want us out there for cleanup.”

“So should I go ahead and plan on spending Thanksgiving with my parents, then?”

“You could.”

It was sunset. They were in a secluded spot about half a mile from where the Triskelion used to be--they could still see the damaged towers sticking up out of the trees. 

On a place at the bank of the river, Coulson double-checked the letter tied to Hedwig’s leg. He told her to fly out to Coburn Creek, Arizona and watch over the abandoned mine.  
“Just don’t let anyone from Hydra see you. Okay?” he asked her.

Hedwig hooted and leaned out to bite his nose. 

“All right. Go on.” Coulson unrolled his fist. Hedwig spread her wings and flew out over the river. Coulson and Hillary watched her disappear behind the trees.

“I’m sorry you haven’t gotten to spend much time with her,” Coulson said, putting his hands in his coat pockets.

“That’s okay, boss,” said Hillary. “We’ll see her later, won’t we?”

“Yeah. She can take care of herself.”

“So since when do you speak owl?” asked Hillary.

“I don’t speak owl, really,” Coulson said. “I can just...understand her mind.”

“Did Hydra give you mind powers after you came back from the dead?”

“No, it’s just...Emily said I was a lot more...understanding, was her word.”

“So it’s the Force?”

Coulson shook his head. “I don’t know. I’d like to think it is. But then how is an owl sensitive to the Force?”

“You’ve got me. Strange times we live in.”


	4. Chapter 4

Wanda was pretty sure she was dreaming.

She was walking down a dark corridor towards a light. The edge of a table was visible in the light and a chair in front of it. She came next to these and stopped, unsure what to do.

“Sit,” a male voice commanded her.

Wanda pulled out the chair and sat down.

She saw two hands coming out of the long sleeves of a robe. There was no face. One hand was holding a deck of playing cards.

“Why have you come?”

“I have questions,” she said. She hadn’t been planning to say that.

“So ask me,” said the male voice, deep and quiet. The deck of cards was placed on the table. The pair of hands began to shuffle them.

“Why is my brother dead when others have come back to life?”

The hands stopped shuffling. They placed the cards in an even stack and drew three off the top. Wanda realized these were fortune-telling cards. But they weren’t like any set of  
Tarot cards she had ever seen. These were different. 

The first card on the table had a picture of the grim reaper. The second was of a thief in a vault loading a sack with gold. The third card was turned to the playing side. It was a three of clubs.

“Death is angry,” said the Loremaster. “Death has been robbed of three victims. He will keep your brother as a ransom.”

“Until when?”

“Until the debt is satisfied.”

“Three victims. Does that include the owl?”

“No. This is just from your dimension. The owl was taken from hers.” The hands replaced the cards in the deck and began to shuffle. “Ask another question.”

“What is the future of the new Avengers team? Will it last?”

A card was laid on the table. The illustration was of several black serpents winding together, their mouths open and spitting venom.

“Treachery. Hydra is rising.”

A second card: a man in a black, hooded cloak.

“Misfortune. The new Avengers will not survive it.”

“What of the one called the Winter Soldier?”

A third card was laid. An axe.

“He is in grave danger.”

Suddenly Wanda felt very afraid. “Why are you showing me this?”

“Listen to me,” the male voice whispered. “There is an Evil in the universe that would destroy all that is good and subject all living beings to its power. It will stop at nothing to destroy everything you hold dear.”

“Is it Hydra?”

“Hydra is part of it.” The cards were shuffled. One was laid out. The illustration showed a hand reaching to grab from a cache of jewels. “Only a small part. But no matter what  
happens,” the card was replaced in the deck and shuffled, “you must fight against it. At all costs. It must be stopped.”

“What is this evil?” Wanda asked.

A new card was laid out. It was a maiden wielding a sword. “You have faced it before. And you must do so again.”

 

Wanda woke with a start. She was covered with sweat.

She held her hand to her forehead. She had no idea what she’d just seen. She remembered the details vividly. It was just...they made no sense. Who had shown her the strange cards? And what had he been saying to her, that the new Avengers wouldn’t last? 

Was this her subconscious overreacting to her everyday work stress?

It was just a dream, it was only a dream, she told herself. She laid back down in her bed and rolled over, hugging her blankets close to her.

After a while, however, she found that she could not get herself to fall asleep. She got up and went to the bathroom. It was shortly after two in the morning. She went to her room and turned her lamp back on. She picked up Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. She had finished the first two books very quickly. And the third book was even more enjoyable.

Wanda had to chuckle to herself when she read about Professor Trelawney. Fortune-telling was a mucky business. There was no way of predicting the future, was there?

But when she finally laid down and turned her light back off, she had to wonder. Harry Potter had his own strange dreams occasionally. Were those just dreams or did they mean something?

 

It was Sunday. Natasha and Wanda went to the park for a walk. They hung out at Steve’s apartment for a little while. Then they went home and Skyped the Bartons. Natasha told Clint about her and Wanda’s upcoming op, and he was eager to give them advice. But Wanda couldn’t get enough of Baby Nate. He was getting so big and chubby and it was very easy to get him to smile and laugh. She had Laura email her a picture, and she tucked it into her wallet next to her photo of the baby’s namesake.

The truth was, however, Wanda couldn’t help feeling nervous about the upcoming trip. Maybe it was just because it was a high-stakes operation. Maybe because it would be just her and Natasha, and Natasha didn’t have Vision’s energy blasts or Steve’s shield or Rhodey’s firepower or Sam’s wings. But that didn’t seem quite right, since Natasha was very capable without any of those enhancements.

Maybe it was the fear of not knowing exactly what they were up against. S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Arizona team was still collecting more details about the Hydra hideout. But land mines and bomb traps were nothing she couldn’t handle, right?

Wanda didn’t want to admit that the dream had made her nervous. But it had. Deep down, she worried that something would go wrong on this mission, and that would lead to all of the terrible things that the card-dealer had warned her about.

“Just don’t worry about it,” Sam Wilson told her on Monday, patting her on the back when he saw that she looked worried.

“I’m not afraid,” she lied.

“It’s okay to be scared,” said Steve. “We gotta be professional about it.” 

It turned out that other than the explosives, the Hydra hideout wasn’t too heavily guarded. Just about fifty or so armed men total working there, most of them security guards. Agent Swill’s secondary drone surveillance had been very detailed. 

“It shouldn’t be anything you and Wanda can’t handle,” Steve said to Natasha.

“So when do we start?” Natasha asked

They laid out a plan of attack. Natasha and Wanda would fly out to New Mexico the next day. Rhodey would go with them and fly a jet from which they would drop over Coburn Creek, Arizona, and once they landed in the forest the lady Avengers would walk to the abandoned mine and start the attack. Wanda would deactivate the minefield and bomb traps with her powers. Natasha would fight the guards. S.H.I.E.L.D. would be waiting nearby once they had gone in to make arrests and collect evidence.

“If there’s anything left,” Steve added grimly. That implied that he didn’t care if Nat and Wanda blew everything up.

“Question, what about Hydra Base Lambda in Las Vegas?” asked Natasha. “What are they chances they will find out we’re coming and bring reinforcements?”

“If S.H.I.E.L.D. is doing their job right,” said Steve, “and I think they are, they would have escaped detection on their recon missions.”

“We don’t have anything to go on,” said Sam. “S.H.I.E.L.D. is wiretapping Hydra’s known emails.”

Monday was over way too quickly for Wanda. On Tuesday morning Natasha, Wanda, and Rhodey climbed into a S.H.I.E.L.D. hover-plane to go to New Mexico.

“And if I don’t see you guys again Happy Thanksgiving!” Natasha called back as she got onto the plane, waving goodbye.

Wanda wanted to tell her she wished she wouldn’t say that. 

Natasha and Rhodey piloted to Datil, New Mexico. It was actually close to the radio telescope known as the Very Large Array, and the government had a private airstrip there. It was about noon, so they laid their last plans and waited until dark. They called the Tempe S.H.I.E.L.D. office at four to check if they were coming. Agent Parsons said that he was planning on leaving in half an hour. They would have plenty of time. After the op, it was decided that Natasha and Wanda would hitch a ride back to Tempe with the S.H.I.E.L.D. team and they would get a flight home from Phoenix--so Rhodey would drop them off and go straight back to New York. He had to be at Stark Tower the next day for Thanksgiving. 

“Are you sure you don’t need me to stick around?” Rhodey asked Natasha and Wanda as they flew over the New Mexico/Arizona state line in the pitch November darkness.

“We can handle this,” said Natasha. “S.H.I.E.L.D.’s team will be there.”

“Are you sure?” Rhodey asked. “Why don’t you call them and see where they’re at?”

Natasha did call Agent Parsons on her cell phone. Traffic in the East Valley was almost impassible, he said. They were running behind. But they would be there.

Natasha groaned as she hung up. “Well, Steve couldn’t have waited until after a major holiday, I suppose,” she said. “How close are we?” she asked Rhodey.

“Another thirty minutes,” he answered.

“Good.” Natasha sat down on the bench next to Wanda. “I suppose we’ll take it easy.”

Wanda pulled out her wallet to look at her pictures of her brother and Clint’s baby. Natasha made small talk with her about similar expeditions she’d made when she’d been a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, including two with the late Emily Bridger.

“Did you know that Coulson was alive? When he worked with her?” Wanda asked her.

“No,” said Natasha. “She wasn’t supposed to tell us. Only a few people in S.H.I.E.L.D. were allowed to have contact with him. And she did a great job keeping him a secret. She was almost a better spy than me. Almost.”

“Romanoff, we’re about five minutes out,” Rhodey called them from the front.

Natasha got up. “Time to suit up.” She put her electrostaffs and stingers on, testing a few of them. Then Wanda helped her put on a parachute.

“Aren’t you going to put on a parachute?” Natasha asked her.

“I will be fine,” said Wanda. “I’m going to levitate down.”

“Oh. Like you did in Murmansk.”

“I won’t land on top of an iron railing this time,” said Wanda.

“No, you won’t,” said Natasha. “You might land on top of a tree instead.” 

Of course Natasha was kidding, right?

“Any more word from Parsons?” asked Natasha.

“They’re still stuck in traffic on the edge of town,” said Rhodey. “It could take them two hours to get up here.”

“Well, let’s not keep them waiting,” said Natasha. “Open the hatch.”

The bay door in the back of the jet opened. The air rushing at Natasha and Wanda was cold. Wanda could see an endless sea of trees beneath her.

“I thought Arizona was a desert?”

“It’s all a desert,” said Natasha. “Some of it has trees. Later, Rhodes.” Natasha dived out of the back of the jet like a swimmer from a diving board. Wanda waited until her parachute popped. 

“See you, Rhodey,” Wanda said. She jumped out of the back of the plane a little less gracefully than Natasha had. She triggered her powers to get her to float. She was still falling, but with help from her powers she could direct herself and move in midair in a semblance of flight. At least that was the theory. Wanda spread her limbs out in free-fall and tried to create enough energy to slow herself down. It took a few minutes, and finally when she was just a few hundred meters over the trees she was gliding. She saw Natasha’s parachute descending a little ways off to her right and she directed herself to meet it.

Below her were spread the tops of ponderosa pines in all directions. A sheer cliff rose on the horizon while smaller hills and mountains rolled off from it. Moving herself between the foothills, Wanda figured that she and Natasha could keep out of anyone’s direct line of sight, at least if they were watching from the valley floor. Small lights glowed from houses and cabins nestled in the foothills, and a steady stream of cars was winding up and down the side of the cliff range.

Wanda’s ear radio came on. “Wanda, Nat, can you hear me?” came Steve Rogers’ voice from the control room of the Avengers’ Headquarters.

“Copy that, Captain,” said Natasha. “Wanda, where are you?”

“I’m heading towards you,” said Wanda, gliding over the tops of the trees. She couldn’t stay airborne for much longer.

“I’m almost to the ground,” said Natasha. “I think I can see you.”

“I see you too,” said Wanda, maneuvering herself towards the descending bubble of Natasha’s parachute. She was extremely lucky that it hadn’t gotten caught in the trees. 

“Rogers, can you get me Agent Parsons on comms?”

“Yes, Nat,” said Steve.

Natasha was just feet away from the ground when Wanda finally saw her between the dark, bare pillars of the pines. Suddenly, Natasha was jerked back by her parachute straps. One of the ropes had gotten caught on a branch. Natasha started to unbuckle herself from the harness. Wanda landed on the ground not far from Natasha. She used a hex to untangle the parachute from the tree branches. Natasha fell, crouching as she landed. 

“Thanks,” she said. 

“There’s a reason I don’t use those things,” said Wanda.

Natasha finished unfastening the parachute harness. The two of them walked forward through the forest.

“Which way are we going?”

“This way,” pointing off to the right. “Cap, where did we land?”

“You’re just a few yards away from the logging track,” said Cap. “If you follow that about a quarter mile to the east, then you’ll get to the turnoff for the mine.”

“Copy that.” Walking through the woods, they soon came to a break in the trees--a dirt road. 

They walked along it. 

“I just got a hold of Agent Parsons,” said Steve. “Their cellular reception is spotty right now, but they’re out of Mesa. They should be with you in about an hour.”

“Good.”

It was extremely cold. Wanda could feel the cold nipping through her boots to her toes.

“You should be coming close to the first of the security cameras,” Steve informed them. “Wanda, can you sense anything?”

Wanda felt around the woods for sources of electrical energy. “There’s one on that tree,” she said, pointing. “It’s solar powered.” 

“Well, can we do this without losing the element of surprise?” asked Natasha. “I mean, if one turns off they’ll know something’s up?”

“Aw, to heck with it,” said Steve.

Wanda fired off a hex at the camera. It exploded in a puff of smoke and sparks. She and Natasha watched as a few burning remains fell about a hundred feet to the ground.

“Do you think we might start a forest fire if we start blowing things up?” Wanda asked.

“It makes me wonder if S.H.I.E.L.D. called the fire department,” said Natasha.

“The next camera is just a few yards off to your right,” said Steve.

“I’ll go get it,” said Wanda.

“I’ll find another one,” said Natasha. She ran off to the left with her guns drawn. Wanda heard her firing from behind her as she ran forward. The next security camera was destroyed in short order. Not far from it Wanda found the wirings for a bomb trap. A hex deactivated it. She and Natasha raced through the woods, snaking between the trees to take out the traps and the cameras. 

“Keep moving forward, ladies,” Steve encouraged them.

Wanda stopped to catch her breath. Any moment, Hydra would be alerted to their presence--if they weren’t already. 

She angled through the forest back towards the logging track. She crossed it, following the noise of Natasha’s pistols. 

Then she heard different gun noises--heavy assault rifles. Wanda created a surge of energy and ran. She heard shouting and saw the flashing of gunfire. She threw several hexes at the dark shadows running between the tree trunks. There were yells of agony and pain on impact. 

“Natasha, are you all right?”

“I’m a little busy here,” Natasha said. She sounded like she was wrestling someone.

Wanda ran into one of the Hydra guardsmen. He was dressed in black fatigues and wore a helmet with the visor down. Wanda used a hex to explode the visor. He yelled and he tripped. Wanda jumped over his prone form.

“How close are we to the entrance?” Wanda asked.

“About another three hundred yards up ahead and on the left,” said Steve.

“Captain, can I get a status report on S.H.I.E.L.D.?” asked Natasha

“They are just passing Strawberry. So halfway there. Sort of.”

“Why do I get the feeling they’re going to be keeping us waiting?” Wanda’s ear popped with the sound of Natasha’s guns going off over her radio.

“Don’t worry about it. Just do your job,” Steve urged them. “Wanda, can you go off to the meadow and take care of that land mine? S.H.I.E.L.D. might try to park there.”

“I’ve got it,” said Wanda. She levitated herself and darted through the trees, throwing hexes at guards and security cameras as she went. Three bomb traps went off behind her as  
she went. Natasha was running directly for the entrance to the mine shaft. 

Wanda ran straight to a large clearing in the woods, about a quarter mile square in breadth. There were a pair of tire tracks that cut directly across.

She would like to have known about how Hydra had planted the land mines and then replaced the grass on top of it. Starting to feel around with her powers, she could feel the mines under the ground, spread across the meadow at haphazard intervals, the wires connecting them, the explosives waiting to be triggered at the slightest touch. She shot tendrils of energy across the meadow and under the ground to melt the land mines and fuse their components together, making them useless. Then she felt two minds approaching her: Hydra guards. She turned around and hexed them. One of them got pushed backwards and was knocked against a tree. The other fell when his gun magazine exploded in his face. But more guards were coming out of the woods. They were firing at her. 

She ran across the meadow, dodging the bullets while trying to watch her step. She let off a few more hexes to deactivate more of the mines, but she wasn’t sure they found their intended targets. Meanwhile, she let off a force field to block the bullets that were popping towards her. One of the running Hydra guards stepped onto the grass. She pushed him onto a live mine and there was a huge explosion that knocked her and several of her pursuers to the ground as clods of earth came raining down on them. Her head nearly struck a land mine that was still activated. She turned it off as quickly as she could. But a Hydra guard was running towards her with his gun, ready to blow her to bits at point-blank range. For half a second she was terrified. Then she sent a hex at the man to shove him backwards into his oncoming comrades. 

While the Hydra guards were climbing on top of each other, Wanda ran to the far side of the meadow, her red energy coursing left and right to turn off the land mines. The guards started shooting at her again. She ran along the edge of the trees, raining hexes at them from across the clearing. Some of the guards gave chase to her and one stepped on an active mine. The explosion shook the earth and she nearly fell onto a tree, catching herself just in time. She ran to the other side of it to catch her breath.

“Captain, I don’t think I got all of them,” she gasped, clutching her ear radio.

“It’s okay, Wanda,” he said. “Just keep moving forward. I’ll tell Parsons not to go there.”

Another explosion went off in the meadow behind her. She continued to run. 

In the trees near the side of the hill, Natasha was working up a sweat, alternately fighting hand-to-hand and using every weapon at her disposal. She had to stop behind a tree to reload her pistols. Ahead of her, where the hill bent out of sight, she could see a light coming out of an opening.

“Natasha, be careful!” Steve chided her through the radio.

“What do you think I’m doing!” she said as she punched a Hydra guard that had come too close. She ran off away from the hillside, shooting at several guards as she went.

“There’s way too many of them. I thought Parsons said there were only about fifty.”

“Just get this over with, Nat, we’ll worry about a head count later.”

Natasha put away her guns and pulled out her electric pikes and started to fight one of the guards. “You know, Cap, it is way past your bedtime over there and you get cranky  
when you’re tired. Wanda and I can handle this.”

“I can’t sleep when my teammates are in trouble, you know?”

“Can’t or don’t? We’re not in trouble.” Natasha stuck her pikes into the chest of the man she was fighting. “You’re worse than Barton.”

Natasha heard shots coming from a much louder gun and ringing through the woods behind her. Then she heard an ominous creaking sound. A two-hundred-foot pine tree was falling down towards her. She put away her electric pikes. Natasha started to run ahead of the falling tree, dodging bullets that were coming at her rapidly from the sides. She finally veered to the right and the needled top of the tree came crashing down beside her. She ducked behind it. Pulling out one of her pistols she gunned down two guards that were coming towards her.

The bigger gun was sending bullets through the air above her and into the trunk of the fallen tree. She peeked over the tree branches and saw, silhouetted against the lights illuminating the mine entrance, a machine gun propped up on a tripod. Natasha started to run, and a stream of machine gun bullets dug at her heels, sending pine needles and pine cones flying behind her. 

“Wanda, there’s a machine gun over here,” Natasha gasped into her radio. “It’s in front of the entrance to the base.”

“I see it,” Wanda said. She was standing on a short rise not far from the entrance to the mine shaft, hiding behind the tree. Natasha was running the opposite direction from her. She started to run between the trees, blocking bullets and stunning Hydra guards with hexes as she ran. She was thirty feet from the machine gun mount and they hadn’t seen her. Wanda levitated herself and did a backflip. She hexed one of the gunners instantly. The other turned to fight her. They exchanged punches for a few seconds. Wanda grabbed him in a chokehold and flipped him upside down, and then for good measure gave him a hex. He was unconscious. Then Wanda turned to the machine gun. Sensing her way into the gun’s inner magazine, she thrust a burst of energy inside of it and blew it up, levitating herself away onto the side of the hill to clear away from the blast.  
She flew over the entrance of the mine shaft and then dropped herself on top of a guard just as he was emerging. He yelled and she hexed him unconscious. She stood up and started to blast energy shots at the guards who had realized she was there and had turned around to face her. Some of them were struck with their own bullets as she deflected them. 

Natasha came bounding into view, doing somersaults and then flailing out with her electric staves. There were only a handful of guards standing around the entrance. None of them appeared to be in any sort of leadership position. Natasha ran around and fought whichever guards she could reach with her fists, and she turned on her stingers for effect. Wanda used her hexes. 

Finally the guards were all on the ground, either face up or face down. Most of them were dead but a few were unconscious.

Natasha and Wanda looked at each other. 

“That wasn’t so bad,” said Natasha. She pressed her finger to her ear. “Captain, we’ve got the area secured.”

“Maybe just for the moment,” said Steve. 

“What do you need us to do now?” Wanda asked.

“Close up the mine shaft,” said Steve. “The eurekaite is in the back. Hydra was just camped out in the front.”

“Are you sure--” Natasha started.

“Got it,” said Wanda, running eagerly towards the cave.

“No, wait, Wanda!” Natasha ran to follower her and then stopped. She watched as Wanda unleashed a huge hex into the entrance of the mine. It struck the roof just where the corner of the shaft turned. The shaft began to collapse on impact, but then the entire side of the mountain started to shake.

Wanda, so help me, Natasha thought. She ran forward and grabbed Wanda by the wrist--Wanda had just been standing there like an idiot. They turned around and ran up the hillside. But then some of the guards that they had knocked unconscious reappeared over the rise and fired down on them. Before Natasha could react, Wanda pushed her to the ground and shot hexes at the guards who were running towards them. Then Natasha looked over her shoulder when she heard a popping noise coming from inside the mine shaft. Of course--Hydra had more explosives inside. She got up and she and Wanda started running away. The hillside behind them exploded, fire and gas pushing rocks and trees outward. It wasn’t a huge explosion, thank goodness. But they were both pushed to the ground by the impact.

Natasha sat up slowly while Wanda rolled over, pine needles clinging to their hair.

They slowly got to their feet, dusted themselves off, and started walking.

“I don’t know, Cap,” said Natasha into her radio as they continued walking. “There might not be much left there for S.H.I.E.L.D. to pick up. They may just collect the bodies.”

“Well, I don’t know if S.H.I.E.L.D. will know for sure until they get there,” said Steve. “And Parsons just called me. They’re on the other side of Payson and stuck in traffic. It could be a while.”

Natasha and Wanda were both too exhausted to respond.

“Just find someplace close by to lay low. Parsons told me that you two don’t even have to stick around.”

“All right. We’ll get going.”

Wanda looked at Natasha. “Natasha, are you sure there aren’t any more of those guards who are alive enough to ambush them?” 

“Do you think there are any?”

Every mind that Wanda could sense in that part of the woods was sleeping or knocked out. “No. But S.H.I.E.L.D. will have to hurry.”

“They’ll call us if they need anything.”

They made it back to the logging track. Instead of following it, however, they went back to the trees on the other side. Wanda really wanted to sit down and rest, but she knew that  
Natasha wanted to find a safe place to hide first.

“There might be some cabins not far from here,” Wanda said to her.

“Yeah, probably,” said Natasha. “Of course, why do you think Parsons and his crew are stuck in freaking traffic? Because everyone in Phoenix is trying to get out for the holiday.”

They walked in silence for a moment, keeping their ears peeled for the noises of people following them. But all they heard was the sound of pine needles crunching beneath their boots.

Wanda was starting to think that maybe they should go back when she felt a familiar presence come into the vicinity. Then Natasha stopped her. 

“Do you hear something?” she asked, looking around.

Wanda turned around and looked up. “Hedwig.”


	5. Chapter 5

Natasha looked up where Hedwig was looking, surprised. Hedwig was there, perched on one of the high branches of the trimmed-back trees. She was barely visible in the darkness, her white shape a pearly blue.

“Hedwig? What’s Hedwig doing here?” Natasha asked, confused.

“I think she was sent to help us,” said Wanda. “And she knows a place where we can go to hide. There she goes. Let’s follow her.”

Natasha wasn’t entirely sure about just following wherever the owl led, but Wanda took off walking at a fast pace when the owl alighted from the tree branches, flying low between the pillar-like trunks.

They walked for about a mile, following Hedwig through the trees. Hedwig was flying somewhat straight, but Natasha and Wanda had to zig-zag around low-growing shrubs and fallen logs to keep moving forward. The owl was actually rather fast, and they were both panting for breath as they went up one hill and down another. Finally, over the crest of a second hill, they saw lights scattered in between the trees in the valley below them. Hedwig had stopped on one of the trees and was watching the two lady Avengers over her shoulder. Natasha wondered if Hedwig was resting, but Wanda knew that the owl was actually waiting for them to catch their breath. She could barely keep from smiling at the owl. When they had rested, they started to walk forward again. Hedwig glided down through the trees ahead of them.

The hillside was steep to begin with, and the blanket of dead pine needles made the way slippery. Natasha caught Wanda before she fell once or twice, and Wanda even used her powers to prop Natasha up when she lost her balance. Hedwig glided between the trees, turning back to watch them.

“Where is she taking us?” Natasha asked.

“I do not know. All I can read from her mind is that there is a friend close by.”

“All right,” Natasha nodded.

After ten minutes of half-sliding down the hill they reached more level ground. Wanda looked around. Hedwig was flying ahead towards a cabin with a lighted window. The cabin was decorated with logs on the outside and had a stone chimney and a veranda that wrapped around the first storey. Wanda had forgotten the cold earlier during the fighting but now it was coming back and it was worse than ever. And even Natasha, sturdy as she was, was tempted by the idea of warmth. The night sky was clear and without light pollution they could see tens of thousands of stars crowded in the cold sky. Wanda could even see the Milky Way--you didn’t get that in Corinth. Ahead of them, Hedwig landed on the roof over the veranda and hooted at them, urging them to come. 

Natasha climbed over a fence and helped Wanda over it--she was too tired to climb herself or to levitate over it. They then made their way through the small yard to the steps of the house. Hedwig was perched over what appeared to be the front door. 

It didn’t make sense to Wanda for a house this far out in the country to have a doorbell. But Natasha rang it. They heard a dog barking inside--a big dog, by the sound of it. A man told it to quiet down.

The door opened. The man leaning in the doorway was middle-aged with short, curly gray hair, and he wore a dirty t-shirt and jeans and wiped his hands on a rag.

“Can I help you?”

He was sizing them up. He noticed the A for Avengers on Natasha’s uniform. And Wanda suspected that when he opened the door he had been expecting someone else.

“We need a place to rest for a while,” said Natasha.

“Sure, come in,” said the man. He stood out of the way of the door to admit them. His dog, a black great dane, ran up to Natasha immediately. “Ace, back down,” the man commanded. 

“That’s a nice dog,” Natasha commented.

Wanda looked back. Hedwig flew through the door behind them and perched on the upstairs balcony inside and began to preen herself. Wanda thought it best not to let the cold air in and closed the door with her powers.

“Ace, come over here,” the man said He walked into the living room and pointed to a rug in the corner. The dog followed him. “Sit. Thank you,” he said, returning Natasha’s earlier compliment. “Now who might you be?”

“The Avengers--well, just part of the team. Don’t you watch the news?” Natasha asked.

“Can’t say I pay any attention,” said the man.

Wanda figured they could trust him.

“Well--just for the record, we had some business up here. Now we’re just waiting for our ride, I suppose,” said Natasha.

“Well, make yourselves at home.”

“Thank you, sir. I’m Natasha, by the way. This is Wanda.”

“Hello,” said Wanda quietly.

“All right. Nice to meet you. Kenneth Tanner, at your service.” The man was over at the fireplace--he was cleaning it out. “So what brings you up here? More bad guys like there  
were in Mesa a few months back?”

“You heard about it?” Natasha asked.

“My niece works for S.H.I.E.L.D..”

“Oh, Hillary!” Natasha slapped herself lightly. “I should’ve known. Tanner, that’s right. That’s where I heard the name before.”

Wanda looked up at Hedwig. Hedwig had finished preening herself for the moment. Now she was thirsty. Wanda decided to go over to the kitchen area. She found a dish in the cupboard and filled it with water.

“You’re the guy who had the Winter Soldier hiding up here, weren’t you?” Natasha asked.

“Who?”

“He goes by Bucky.”

“Oh. Him. Yeah. He’s the young man I helped out when things got a little testy. Do you know him?”

The truth was, he had almost killed her. Twice. “I know someone who’s looking for him.”

“Ah. Yeah, I hear he’s on the run. You’re not one of them, are you?” He was implying Hydra.

“Oh, no, heavens,” said Natasha. “I just happen to work with Steve Rogers. Did Bucky not tell you his backstory? Or Hillary, by any chance?”

“I heard that Captain America came looking for him, yeah,” said Kenny. He was more concerned with cleaning the fireplace.

Wanda set the water dish on the counter. Hedwig flew down and drank from it. 

The big dog in the corner got up and ran across to the kitchen, barking, almost knocking Natasha over. He tried to jump onto the counter to scare Hedwig. Hedwig hooted shrilly and jumped away. Wanda raised her arms to attack the dog with her powers.

“ACE! ACE! BE QUIET!” Mr. Tanner shouted. He stormed across the room, his hands covered with soot. “Ace, get back down!” He yanked the dog off the counter by the collar. “Get back in your corner and sit!” He was trying very hard not to kick the dog as it retreated to its rug. He turned around and saw Wanda still poised for action.

“I am sorry, sir,” she stammered, relaxing.

“It’s all right,” he said. He looked across the kitchen and saw the owl. “You didn’t do nothin’. Help yourself to anything you need.” He went back to cleaning the fireplace. “You  
can make yourself comfortable,” he said to Natasha. She had been standing the entire time. Natasha sat down on the couch not far from Ace’s rug. Ace looked up at her but she  
didn’t mind him.

“Normally Ace is a pretty good dog,” said Mr. Tanner. “I mean, you should’ve seen him with that Bucky feller.”

Natasha shrugged.

Wanda straightened the water dish, and as Hedwig returned drink it Wanda cleaned up the excess water on the counter.

“So what exactly was going on up there tonight?” Tanner asked Natasha.

“There was a group of hostile terrorists working in an abandoned mine up the road.”

“Oh, really? I wasn’t aware there was a mine back there,” said Tanner. “Is it off the old logging road?”

“A ways, yeah.” 

“Well, maybe not far away enough,” said Tanner. “My house shook with the noise of whatever you were doing. Did you set off the earthquake around eight-fifteen, by any  
chance?”

“That’s probably what it felt like, yeah,” said Natasha. “We blew up the entrance to the mine. Probably caused a landslide. There isn’t anyone living downwind of that area, is there?”

“I don’t think so,” Tanner shook his head. “This is the edge of the neighborhood. But you do what you have to, I suppose.”

“I wish the U.S. government were as complacent as you are,” Natasha smirked, folding her arms.

While Natasha and Tanner were talking, Wanda was watching Hedwig drink. She wished she had something to feed the owl. In the meantime, she got a glass of water for herself--there was a water dispenser built into the fridge. Not the nicest one she’d seen, but a good touch.

Moving back to the counter, she stood next to Hedwig. Hedwig stretched her wings and then held out her left leg for Wanda. That was when Wanda noticed that there was something tied to Hedwig’s leg. There was a piece of paper wrapped around the limb secured with a leather cord. Wanda had only to tug at the cord and it came loose. She pried the paper off of Hedwig’s leg without much difficulty. 

“Natasha, there is a message for us,” said Wanda. 

“What?” Natasha stood up and walked over to the kitchen counter.

“Is that a carrier pigeon or an owl you got there?” Tanner asked them.

The note read:

To Natasha and Wanda:

I sent Hedwig to look after you while you were on assignment. If you need to, you can use Hedwig to send a message to Agent Parsons or the Tempe S.H.I.E.L.D. office. They will fax whatever message you send to me or to Cap.

Coulson

“Well, that is brilliant,” said Wanda. 

“I’ll say,” said Natasha. “Coulson must’ve known we’d have no cell phone reception out here. “Mr. Tanner, do you have any stationary?”

“I have a computer with printer paper upstairs,” he said. “I can run and get you some.” He stood up and went up the stairs.

Hedwig walked across the counter while Natasha and Wanda were watching him leave the room. Wanda felt something nudge her and caught Hedwig tugging at her leather sleeve.

“Heeeeey,” said Wanda, patting the down feathers on her head. “You’re worse than a cat, you know? But you did a good job, coming all the way out here, yes you did. And you know what,” she said to Natasha, “I’ll bet Coulson told her to lead us to Mr. Tanner’s cabin on purpose. Hillary would have told him about it.”

“Well, it’s not like S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t already know it existed,” Natasha shrugged. Tanner came back into the room carrying several loose sheets of printer paper. He rummaged in one of the kitchen drawers for a pen and tested it. 

“Here you go,” he said, handing the implements to Natasha. Natasha took one of the sheets and wrote out a letter detailing her and Wanda’s activities, conferring with Wanda as she wrote.

Agent Parsons:

Wanda and I are at a safe house. It should be pretty obvious from the damage what happened out there. Wanda thinks she deactivated most of the land mines in the meadow but some of them may not have been reached. She was under heavy attack during most of her time there. We approached the mine shaft from the south-west and took out the security cameras and bomb traps we found en route, though none of the security system in the vicinity should still be up. Wanda also caved in the front entrance of the mine shaft. The side of the mountain may have collapsed. We are not entirely sure that the security guarding the mine was completely killed off or injured seriously. We also think that Hydra had a lot more people at this site than initial reports confirmed and that they were more heavily armed. We encountered at least one machine gun. There may have been more explosives in the tunnels. If you need help securing the area, let us know. 

Romanoff

Natasha ripped the sheet of paper in half and folded it up. She was about to roll it around Hedwig’s leg but then Hedwig hooted at her.

“Hedwig can take it in her mouth. She is only going a short way,” Wanda said.

“All right then,” said Natasha, handing the letter to Hedwig. Hedwig took it in her beak. She hopped onto Natasha’s wristcuff and Natasha carried her to the door. “We’ll be waiting right here for you, Hedwig.” Wanda opened the door for them, and Natasha let the owl outside. Hedwig flew away into the darkness.

When they closed the door, Mr. Tanner was looking at them.

“What?” asked Natasha.

He shrugged. “I’ve seen weirder stuff.”  
Natasha got herself a drink of water. Mr. Tanner showed Wanda where the bathroom was. The two ladies sat on the couch. Natasha petted Ace while Mr. Tanner continued to clean out the fireplace. Wanda leaned back and watched them. She was tired but she did not think she was in any position to fall asleep at the moment.

“Well, how long have you been up here?” asked Natasha. 

“Came up Sunday night,” said Mr. Tanner. “Fixed the plumbing and the heater. Now, of course, I’m doing the fireplace. Just general maintenance. Getting ready for the holidays. I’ve got family coming up this weekend.”

“Oh. Were you planning on staying here over Thanksgiving?” 

“Nope. I was going to go back tomorrow morning,” Mr. Tanner grunted. “Bright and early, before all the yahoos came out. At least I’m hoping they don’t come out that early. Nope. We’ll come up for Black Friday. My wife hates all the shopping. Buys everything on Amazon for cheap. She gets stressed out at Thanksgiving too. So we just come up here with all the kids and the grandkids, hang out for a few days. Play in the snow if there is any.” He looked over at them. “How about you girls? Do you have any plans for Thanksgiving?”

Wanda shook her head. Natasha shrugged.

“Well, don’t superheroes have families?”

Neither of them had any real family to go to.

“Steve--well, Captain America, to you--he’s got cousins up in New York state. The Falcon’s got a sister in Harlem and a cousin in D.C.. You’re not going to repeat this to anybody, are you?”

“No. Now if it were my daughter Ellen you were talking to--”

“That’s all right. War Machine and Vision are going to Stark Tower. I know Rhodes has family in Philadelphia, but he’s usually hanging out with Stark if he’s got a spare minute.”

“Oh, Iron Man, right,” Mr. Tanner nodded.

“And me? Well, I go with Hawkeye, usually. Wanda was planning to tag along with me for Christmas--” she looked at Wanda, “--but we’re not sure about Thanksgiving.”

“Well, you’re more than welcome to come over to my place,” said Mr. Tanner. “There’s always room for one more at dinner--two shouldn’t be a problem. And of course my brother Trey’s a generous one--but you’ve heard about that, I assume.”

“We have.” Of course Natasha had heard all about it from Steve. And Hillary had talked to Wanda about having Bucky stay with her family earlier that year.

They lapsed into silence. Natasha finally leaned onto the couch and within minutes was snoozing lightly. It must have been difficult, with that uniform and her gear still on. But she was trained to be able to sleep anywhere. For Wanda it wasn’t so easy. She tried closing her eyes, and after a while she was in a more relaxed state--

There was a very light knock at the front door. They both sprang awake immediately. The heard the sound again. Taptaptap. Natasha sprang from the couch and walked over to open the front door. Hedwig came back in, walking on her talons with a letter clutched in her beak--it was the one that Natasha had sent earlier, of course, but folded outward to be reused on the blank side. Natasha took the letter, and Hedwig flew up to the balcony railing again. 

Wanda had gotten up, and she read the letter over Natasha’s shoulder.

Romanoff:

Thanks for the info. Most of the Hydra guards are still alive but none of them have resisted arrest. We have the situation under control now. The unexploded devices are cordoned off. I am calling the state troopers to keep the area under surveillance. You are free to leave if you so desire, but if you can please send a more detailed report to our office in Tempe. We will forward it to Coulson. We have told S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ and the Avengers that you are safe and that you filled your assignment.

Parsons

“Hm,” said Natasha, pursing her lips. “They really think they can handle this on their own.”

“I suppose the danger has passed.” Wanda looked up at the owl. “Has it, Hedwig?” Hedwig chirped at her. “I think that’s a yes.”

“You think?”

“I know it.”

Natasha smirked at her. “Well, I suppose the next order of business is to get out of here. We could just wait for them to pick us up. It might not take them that long.”

Hedwig hooted.

“No, it could be a while,” Wanda translated. “They won’t miss us. They’ve seen you before, anyway.”

“I know,” said Natasha. “So I guess we just head down to Mesa and wait for instructions.”

“A good idea.”

Mr. Tanner wiped off his hands on a towel. “Do you girls need a ride?” 

“Sure,” Natasha shrugged. “You were leaving tomorrow, right?”

“You’re not in any hurry, are you?”

“We won’t make you go before you’re ready,” said Wanda. 

“Actually I am in a hurry,” said Natasha.

“Natasha!” Wanda chided her.

“I don’t mind. I was just about done with the chimney. I was going to make some dinner and just go to bed,” said Mr. Tanner. 

“Tell you what,” Natasha addressed Mr. Tanner, “I’ll drive and pay for your gas.”

“No, you ladies have had a long day, and it’s my truck. I’ll drive. Just buy me a coca-cola at the Circle K.”

“All right, then,” said Natasha. “And I’ll get S.H.I.E.L.D. to--no, scratch that, I will personally pay for your gas. Well, actually, no, I can’t pay for it right now, since I don’t have my wallet with me. But I’ll reimburse you.”

“Thank you very much,” said Mr. Tanner. “But where am I taking you guys?”

Natasha looked at Wanda.

“Hillary’s house,” said Wanda.


	6. Chapter 6

They agreed to give Mr. Tanner time to shower and get something to eat. Natasha went to the kitchen counter and wrote out a report and another note for Parsons. Wanda sat down in front of the now-clean fireplace. Ace the dog got up from his rug and sat next to her. Wanda let him put his big nose on her lap and petted him.

“You are a nice dog,” Wanda said. “I am sorry for earlier.” But dogs never held grudges without good reason.

Mr. Tanner came back down to the kitchen, freshly showered and wearing a green and black plaid flannel shirt. He went to one of the cupboards and opened a can of chili. He put it in a dish and cooked it in the microwave.

“You girls are welcome if you want something to eat,” said Tanner.

“Well, maybe a bite won’t hurt,” said Natasha. “Wanda, you hungry?”

“Sure, I’ll have some,” Wanda said. When the chili was microwaved, Mr. Tanner got three dishes out and told the ladies to serve themselves. Natasha had only a couple of handfuls. Wanda took only a little more at first, but when she had eaten her fill she had more.

“There’s plenty,” Tanner told her when she asked. 

“This is good,” Wanda said.

“This canned stuff is all right,” said Tanner. “But you should have some real home-made chili sometime. That stuff’s actually better for you. You should try the stuff my wife makes.”

Natasha nodded. “This isn’t my first trip out west, Mr. Tanner. I’ve had real chili. Usually much hotter than this.”

Tanner sniffed. “Yeah, I should’ve thought to pack some chili powder.”

When they were done eating, Mr. Tanner returned upstairs to pack. Wanda washed the dishes while Natasha finished her report for S.H.I.E.L.D.. As Natasha was folding up the papers, Mr. Tanner returned with his bags over his shoulder.

“Are you girls ready to go?” he asked.

“Just give me a minute,” said Natasha. “Here, Hedwig.”

Obediently, Hedwig swooped down from the balcony. Natasha found the string from earlier and used it to tie the longer letter to her leg.

“You take that long one to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s office in Tempe,” said Natasha. “This short one is for Agent Parsons.” She let Hedwig clamp the smaller note in her beak. Wanda carried Hedwig to the door and let her fly out.

“Gosh, she’s no different from a dog, is she?” Mr. Tanner commented. Natasha and Wanda looked at her. “I meant no offense. But really, though, with all your-high-tech gadgets and such I’d have thought you wouldn’t be using owls.”

Mr. Tanner gathered up a few more things from the kitchen and then he went around the lower storey of the cabin to make sure the lights were out. 

“Ace, come on, boy,” he said finally as he walked to the door. Panting eagerly, Ace got up from his rug and went to his master’s side. Natasha and Wanda filed out of the cabin after Mr. Tanner, and then Mr. Tanner locked the front door. They offered to carry his things for him but he declined. He stowed one of the larger bags in the pickup and set the smaller ones inside the cab. He moved the front seat forward so Ace could get in the back. Wanda and Natasha got in on the side, with Natasha taking the middle seat.

Mr. Tanner got into the driver’s seat and turned on the ignition. “So do you ladies get uncomfortable sitting around in your suits all day or what?”

“It’s not uncomfortable, after a while,” said Natasha.

“You get used to it,” said Wanda.

They went up a gravel driveway, Mr. Tanner stopping to open and close a gate. The driveway turned onto a long gravel road that wound around the side of the mountain. In the headlights, the trunks of the trees were an eeire yellow-gray. Wanda felt something wet on her hair and turned around to notice Ace letting his tongue hang. She pulled her tresses back over her shoulder. Mr. Tanner noticed and laughed.

The gravel road eventually turned into pavement, and after ten long minutes they came to a highway. There was a steady number of cars going both directions, and they joined the stream going south and west. 

Wanda saw a deer crossing sign on the side of the road. “Mr. Tanner, shouldn’t you be worried about running into deer if you’re driving at this time of night?”

“Nah. It’s a holiday weekend. With this much traffic on the road the deer will know to stay away.”

Wanda just hoped he was right. After fifteen minutes of cruising down the forested highway, they came to a small town with a sign labelling it STAR VALLEY. There was a convenience store off on the right, and Mr. Tanner turned in there, parking in one of the fuel stalls.

He got out of the truck cab and started to refuel the vehicle. Then he poked his head in the window. “I take it you ladies might not want to go in there. Anything I can get for you?”

“I am fine, thank you,” said Wanda.

“Some pink tea and two doughnuts,” said Natasha. 

“All rightie.” Tanner went into the convenience store. He returned about five minutes later with a sack of snack foods--clearly he’d gotten some for himself.

“Here’s the goodies,” he said, passing the bag to Natasha. 

“Thank you,” she said. She pulled out the can of tea and the paper sack with doughnuts in it. 

For himself, Tanner had bought a bottle of coke, a bag of Fritos, and a sack of puffed cheetos. After driving through the town of Payson, Mr. Tanner drank and munched liberally for the first stretch of highway. Half an hour later, the road became more perilous, and Mr. Tanner snacked less. At one point Ace leaned over the back of Natasha’s seat to sniff her doughnut bag and she shooed him.

It was a long, winding drive. Apparently Payson was the only real civilization beyond Mesa--any other place they passed was small and run-down. Up the mountain and down again the highway went. Wanda was sure the landscape would have been spectacular in the daytime, but there wasn’t much to see in the dark besides the headlights of other passing cars and the occasional flash of a sign. She was uncertain about how comfortable she felt with Mr. Tanner grabbing fistfuls of Fritos when they were driving next to a safety barrier, but he had taken this road many times.

Finally the road became more level, and they saw the first pockets of city lights around them, followed by an even greater brightness in the distance.

“Here we are, ladies,” said Mr. Tanner brightly as they drove under the street sign for McKellips Road. They followed McKellips to the Red Mountain Freeway and headed west, getting off on Alma School Road.

“Should we call ahead?” Wanda spoke up. She’d been bursting to ask that since leaving Payson.

“Nah, Jo and Trey are pretty well-equipped to handle surprises,” said Mr. Tanner. “Besides, the last superhuman who came to their door didn’t exactly announce himself, was my understanding.”

They finally drove into a quiet neighborhood. Their destination was a modest but comely-looking house on a corner, built on a rise that had a decent view of the sprawling city below if you looked between the other houses. The clock on Mr. Tanner’s dash read ten fifty-five.

Mr. Tanner parked on the curb and turned off the ignition. “Here we are.”

He got out of the cab first, telling Ace to stay inside. Natasha and Wanda slid out the passenger door and looked around the neighborhood. A quiet, ordinary-seeming place.  
Lots of families. Many religious people. And two houses down on the other side of the street, Wanda could sense with her powers, there was an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and his family assigned to protect the home they had parked in front of.

Wanda wondered if Hillary’s parents would mind her and Natasha imposing on them. But if Mr. Tanner hadn’t hesitated about bringing them here, then his brother must be a hospitable man.

Bucky Barnes was one matter, but the Black Widow and the Witch? Certainly that was different.

Mr. Tanner led them around the side of the house past the garage to a back door. He knocked. “Trey! Jo!” he called. He opened the door and stepped across the threshold. He looked back at Natasha and Wanda. “You can come in.” He turned forward. “Anybody home?”

Natasha and Wanda walked through the door, each feeling the other’s trepidation. The back door led into a laundry room, and then a kitchen that opened into a dining and living area.

“Who is that?” said a warm female voice. A woman in a pink sweater walked around the kitchen counter. She saw Natasha and Wanda briefly but then looked at Mr. Tanner. “Kenny! What are you doing here?”

“I came to say hello,” said Mr. Tanner, giving the woman a hug. “I also picked up these two at my cabin. I was going to come back tomorrow but Ginger here said she’d bribe me. They say they’re friends with Hillary.”

“Ah.”

“If you don’t mind us crashing here for a few minutes while we get a hold of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” said Natasha.

“Not at all, not at all,” said the woman, walking forward. “I’m Jo Tanner. A pleasure to meet you.” She already knew who they were.

“Natasha.”

“I’m Wanda.”

Jo shook hands with Natasha. 

“Is Trey home?” asked Mr. Tanner.

“No, he isn’t,” said Jo. “He went to help set up the turkey pit at my brother’s house. But he wouldn’t mind at all. A friend of Hillary’s is a friend of ours--you have met my daughter, haven’t you?” Jo asked the two lady Avengers.

“We’re acquainted,” said Natasha.

“Hillary was with Vision and I on our recent assignment in London,” said Wanda. “She is a good person. I do not mind her.” Wanda wasn’t really sure what exactly she was supposed to say. But Jo nodded to her in approval.

“Well, do you mind if I use your phone so I can call S.H.I.E.L.D.?” asked Natasha.

“Of course you can,” said Jo. She went to the living room to get her phone from the couch. 

Natasha and Wanda turned to Mr. Tanner. “You’ve been very helpful, sir. I’ll send you a check.”

“I’m glad I could be of help,” said Tanner. “If you need anything else...well, let me know.” He nodded at Natasha and Wanda, yelled goodbye to Jo, and left.

Jo handed her cell phone to Natasha. “Here. I have S.H.I.E.L.D. on speed-dial.”

“Thank you,” said Natasha. She searched the contact list and found the number for S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Tempe office. 

“Do you need anything, dear?” Jo asked Wanda.

“Do you have a restroom?” Wanda asked.

“Yes, the master bath is right through there,” Jo said, pointing to the door.

While Wanda was in the restroom, Natasha was on the phone with Agent Johnson. When she hung up, Wanda had come out.

“So apparently the S.H.I.E.L.D. team is still up there,” Natasha informed her. “They haven’t called Tempe to say where they’re at. And Hedwig hasn’t gotten to Tempe yet.”

“So what else do we do?” asked Wanda.

“Well, we call HQ,” said Natasha. “If S.H.I.E.L.D. is following this, they’re bound to have somebody still up at headquarters.”

“Do you have the number?”

“No, but I was just thinking I’d call Hillary.”

“Do you mind if I text Hillary first?” Jo asked. “She might be asleep.”

“Go ahead,” said Natasha, handing her back the phone. Jo typed a text message to Hillary. She made small talk with Natasha and Wanda afterward, with Natasha describing in general terms their mission up in the mountains. Natasha was about to say that they’d found their way to Mr. Tanner’s cabin when Jo got a reply to her text.

“Hillary says she’s awake and that we can call her,” said Jo. Jo went ahead and dialed her. “Yes, Hillary, how are you?”

“Um, doing good, I guess. But it’s kind of late where I’m at right now,” Hillary responded. “What’s happening? You said that I had two friends drop by.”

“Yes, well--” Jo passed the phone over to Natasha.

“Hello, Hillary,” said Natasha.

“Natasha?” Hillary exclaimed.

“Surprise, surprise. We found your uncle’s cabin up in the woods. It wasn’t far from the abandoned mine, actually,” said Natasha.

Hillary was gasping for air on the other end. “And Wanda’s with you, is that right?”

“Yes, she is,” said Natasha. “And we’re both fine. Agent Parsons said to go ahead and not wait around for them. You haven’t heard from them yet, have you?”

“As a matter of fact, they called a few minutes ago to say they were leaving the site,” said Hillary. “They just had a lot to clean up.” 

“Well, that’s great. Where’s Director Coulson?”

“He’s right here.” Hillary passed the phone.

“Hello?”

“Phil, how are you?” said Natasha coolly.

“Romanoff. I trust you found Hedwig?” Coulson replied.

“Yes, we did. She led us to Hillary’s uncle’s place. He was kind enough to drive us down here to Mesa. So what are we doing next?”

“Well, Cap says you can do whatever you want at this point. S.H.I.E.L.D. could use the help interrogating prisoners and sorting through evidence, but seeing as the day after tomorrow is Thanksgiving it might not work for you to stick around.”

“Oh, I don’t mind sticking around, actually,” said Natasha.

On the other end, she heard Hillary asking Coulson something.

“Hillary says she was wondering if you and Wanda had any plans for Thanksgiving.”

“No we don’t. Not set in stone, anyway.”

“Well, hey, then here’s a thought,” said Coulson. “You two go ahead and stay at the Tanners. We’ll come join you for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, and Friday you can help out S.H.I.E.L.D..”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Hillary says she wants to talk to her mom about it, to see if it’s okay with her,” said Coulson.

“Oh, all right,” said Natasha.

“It looks like Hillary and I might be able to catch a flight tomorrow,” said Coulson. “We can bring your personal effects with us. Anything specific?”

“My wallet and my phone and some real clothes,” said Natasha. “I’ll text you.”

“Okay.”

“And I’ll be sure to have Wanda tell you what she needs.”

“Got it. And has Hedwig reached the Tempe office yet?”

“No, she hasn’t,” said Natasha.

“All right. She should come straight to you once she does.”

“Boss, that was really clever, sending her out there to find us.”

“Not a problem. We’ll talk more later. Bye.”

“Bye.”  
Natasha passed the phone to Jo. Jo spoke with her daughter for a few minutes. “Mm-hm?.. Oh, yes, we’d love to have them!...No, I don’t mind that at all... Oh, yes, of course he’s welcome here...Tomorrow night then? ...Yes. I’ll see you then....Goodnight.”

Jo finally hung up.

“So, Hillary has an idea, and I’m in agreement with her, and I think Trey will like it, too,” she said. “Would either or both of you like to stay with us for Thanksgiving? You don’t  
have to say yes.”

Natasha looked at the floor bashfully.

“I think it would be nice,” said Wanda. “Natasha, what do you think?”

Natasha laughed. “I guess so. We might as well. How many people do you have over here for dinner, usually?”

“Well, it’s me and Trey and this year my son Jonathan and his wife Marie will be coming. They have two kids with them. And Julia and Greg might come, but if they do they won’t stay for long because they’re going to his family as well. And of course Hillary will be here, and she’s thinking of inviting Mark and Director Coulson.”

“Coulson?” said Natasha.

“Well, that will be wonderful,” Wanda commented. “Not too many people. And it will be my first Thanksgiving in America. Yes, I would like that. Thank you, Mrs. Tanner.”

“You can call me Jo,” their hostess reiterated. “Now, as for sleeping arrangements, you two could call a hotel if you wanted, but you’re more than welcome to stay here.”

“I think we’ll take you up on that,” said Natasha. “At least for tonight. Coulson will be bringing our stuff tomorrow.”

“Well, then, could I get you something more comfortable to sleep in?” Jo asked, eyeing their uniforms. “I expect you’ve been wearing those all day.”

“Oh, that would be great,” said Wanda wearily.

Natasha sighed. “I’ve had to stay dressed for longer before. In fact I didn’t expect to change so soon.”

“All right, I’ll be right back,” said Jo, going to her room through the master bedroom. Natasha and Wanda made small talk while they waited in the kitchen. Wanda got herself a drink of water from the tank in the corner.

Jo came back with some clothes for them. She had an oversized, long-sleeved work shirt, a pair of her old pajama bottoms, one of Hillary’s old t-shirts, and a pair of shorts.  
“Since I didn’t know your sizes I thought I’d just go for larger,” said Jo, handing them the clothes. “This is one of Trey’s old work shirts. It’s got holes in odd places but it’s very comfortable--might be a little warm, in fact. And these are some of Hillary’s things.”

Natasha took the oversized shirt and pajama bottoms, Wanda took the t-shirt and shorts. Natasha went to the master bathroom to change while Wanda went to the main bathroom in the hallway. The shirt had been made for some kind of a religious activity, a girls’ camp at least seven years ago, but the design was now faded from the front.

Jo got them some leftover chicken tetrazzini casserole to eat. She offered to let them use Hillary’s bedroom, but they both said they would be fine on the couch.

While they were eating, a tall, blonde man about twenty years of age came into the house through the kitchen door. Jo greeted him with a hug and a kiss.

“How was work, son?” she asked him.

“It was fine, Mom,” he said. He saw Natasha and Wanda seated at the counter. “Who’s this?”

“Cody, this is Natasha and Wanda, two of the Avengers.”

“Oh. Are you friends with Hillary?” he asked them.

“Sort of,” said Natasha.

“How do you do?” said Wanda.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Cody,” he said. “Got any more of that chicken tetrazzini, Mom?”

“There’s still some in the fridge, you can help yourself,” said Jo.

Cody went to the fridge and dished himself a plate of the casserole, warming it in the microwave. He sat at the counter next to Wanda.

“So what brings you to Arizona?” Cody asked. “Anything to do with Hydra?”

“Did Hillary tell you about them?” asked Natasha.

“She gave me a few details--well, she had to, considering there was a guy sleeping in my room a year ago who was on the run from them,” Cody shrugged.

“Ah,” said Wanda.

“Well, Hydra might have been trying to build a secret base up near Payson--near your uncle’s cabin, in fact,” said Natasha. “But, no worries, they’re taken care of now. Your uncle  
gave us a ride down here.”

“That’s cool,” said Cody, munching the pasta. 

“So, Cody, what do you do for a living?”

“Well, I’m taking classes at the community college right now,” said Cody. “But I just got accepted to BYU. So I’ll start up there next semester.”

“Wow, that’s pretty neat,” said Natasha.

“BYU? What is that?” asked Wanda..

“Brigham Young University, the big private school up in Utah,” Natasha explained.

“Oh, all right.” Wanda could sense Jo’s motherly pride for her son. “So what will you be studying up there?”

“Pre-dental. They don’t actually have a dental program, but I thought I’d at least go up there and take more generals, get the prerequisites done. My major is technically biology.”

“Interesting,” said Wanda.

“And are you dating anyone right now?” Natasha asked.

Cody laughed. “No. I’m still trying to get my life together. Got back from serving as a missionary back in April. Girls around here aren’t too interested. But there’s better pickings at BYU, they say.”

Jo was secretly wondering why her son didn’t take more of an interest himself. She went to her room and left the three of them alone.

“But you do not strike me as the kind who would only care for dating girls while in college,” said Wanda.

Cody laughed. “I’m glad you think I’m not shallow. Just as long as I don’t hook up with someone who’s dating me for my major, I guess.”

Wanda laughed.

“So, Natasha, I heard you came out here in March to fight Hydra,” said Cody. “And you’re still working with the Avengers?”

“Yes,” said Natasha. “And still fighting Hydra, like there aren’t a million other problems in the world,” she said, picking at her pasta with her fork.

“Uh-huh.” He looked at Wanda. “And you’re the one they call the Scarlet Witch, is that right?” 

“The Scarlet Witch? That’s new,” said Wanda.

“Well, you do favor the color red,” Cody said with a smirk.

Wanda laughed. “Who calls me that?”

“The press. The other Avengers have code names so that’s what they’re calling you. How’s that working out for you--the Avengers?” asked Cody.

“It is...it is fun. I get to travel a lot. This is my first time coming to Arizona. We’re based up in New York. Your sister’s been to see us once or twice.”

“Just once, actually,” said Natasha.

“Well, if you count coming back after the trip to London as twice,” Wanda shrugged.

“Wow, that’s right, she did go to London with you guys. How was it?”

“It was fine. We weren’t there for very long. We were mostly working. I guess it is a nice city.”

“That’s cool. I’d like to go over there sometime. Maybe I’ll do that if I ever go back to Germany, see all of Europe at once. So you’re from Sokovia, right?” he asked, pointing his fork at Wanda.

“Uh-huh,” said Wanda.

“Hillary tells me they picked up you and your brother right before the big disaster there. I’m sorry if mentioning--”

“No, it’s all right,” said Wanda.

“So how did that work out? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Natasha pretended to not be paying attention, but Wanda knew that Cody was straying into dangerous territory.

Wanda told Cody her story and he just nodded. “For the record, I am sorry about your brother. Hillary told me.”

“Well, I just take it one day at a time,” said Wanda.

Cody put his fork on his plate. “And, one more thing, if you don’t mind me asking, what exactly do your powers do? I keep hearing a lot of different stuff. Even Hillary’s not  
sure.”

Wanda laughed quietly.

Natasha cleared her throat and spoke up. “Well, the general explanation is telekinesis and neural interfacing. She can manipulate objects remotely, bend metal, twist wires, fuse things. But she can also do weird things to other people with their minds--make them see their worst memories, command them to do certain things, read their minds--”

“Well, not really read minds,” Wanda interjected before Cody could respond. “Just sense what they’re feeling and thinking. Not in words, just emotions. So no, I can’t read your mind directly.”

“But you know that the fact that you can possibly read my mind makes me uncomfortable, right?” Cody asked.

The three of them laughed. “I don’t mean you any harm, Cody,” said Wanda. “But you can know that I think you are a good person.”

“All right. Well, thank you,” said Cody. He looked at the clock in the kitchen. “Good grief, it’s almost midnight. I guess I’d better get to bed. I can take your plates,” he said to them.

“Oh, thank you,” said Wanda. She and Natasha handed Cody her plates. Cody deposited the dishes in the sink and told them goodnight before going down the hallway to his room.

Wanda looked at Natasha. Natasha was sizing him up.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Wanda said in an undertone. “Don’t even try it.”

“Try what? He’s twenty years old and most likely a virgin,” said Natasha. “Not my type.”

Wanda giggled.

“Come on, let’s rinse off these dishes so Jo doesn’t have to wait on us hand and foot,” said Natasha, getting up. She and Natasha rinsed off their dishes and loaded them in the  
dishwasher. As they finished, they heard a meowing sound outside of the screen door.

Wanda dried off her hands and went to open the screen door.

“What?” Natasha asked.

“It is a cat,” said Wanda.

“You’re not thinking of trying to control him, are you?” 

“No. I just thought I’d let him in.”

On the back porch sat a long-haired black cat with white markings on the face and paws. He meowed right up until the moment that Wanda opened the screen door. Then he  
backed away and started hissing at her.

“Oh no. Don’t do that,” said Wanda.

The cat arched his back and spat and growled. Wanda backed away.

“Here, let me try,” said Natasha, walking over to the screen door. “Here, kitty.”

The cat hissed even more loudly, his pupils dilating as he bared his white teeth at them.

“Well, go on then,” said Natasha, waving him away. “If you can’t be nice.” She closed the screen door. “Stupid cat.”

“He is not stupid,” said Wanda. “Just distrustful. Territorial. We’ll have to earn his trust.”

Natasha looked at Wanda. “Sometimes I don’t know how you do it.”

The kitchen door opened. A man entered, tall and balding with a slight paunch in the middle, but definitely a relative of Kenneth Tanner.

“Well well,” he said to them when he entered the kitchen. “Are you the girls from the Avengers?”

“Yes we are,” said Natasha. Wanda felt a little self-conscious in her borrowed shorts, but Natasha strolled up to shake hands with their host like she was in uniform rather than  
one of his old work shirts.

“Pleasure to meet you. I’m Trey Tanner.”

“Natasha. Your daughter and your wife were very kind to offer us a place to stay.”

“The pleasure is all ours. We love having company.”

Jo came out of her bedroom and greeted her husband, kissing him. She was carrying a stack of blankets, pillows, and sheets in her arms.

“I’ll get you two girls set up on the couch--well, you’re not exactly girls, are you?”

“Mrs. Tanner, sometimes I feel like a twenty-one-year-old in a thirty-one-year-old body,” said Natasha as she and Wanda followed Jo to the living room. That was probably the most self-revealing thing that Natasha had ever said, Wanda thought. 

The main couch in the living room was a large corner seat, three cushions on each wing. Natasha took the left side and Wanda took the right. Natasha made pleasant chatter with Jo about Hillary and S.H.I.E.L.D. without being too revealing--conversation was an art with her. Jo and Trey finally bid them both goodnight and went to their room. Natasha and Wanda sat down on their improvised beds and talked for a few minutes. Jo had left the lights to be turned off at their leisure.

Wanda’s eyes had been drifting around the room as she got comfortable, but during a lapse in the conversation she noticed something on top of the upright piano.

“Hello, what is this?” She stood up and walked across the room. It was a framed photograph. 

“What is it?” asked Natasha, looking up.

Wanda turned the photo towards Natasha. “It is our friend Mr. Barnes.”

“What?” Natasha stood up. She took a closer look at the photograph. It must have been taken during his stay with the Tanners earlier in the year. His long hair was combed and  
his face was clean, and he was wearing fairly decent clothes. He was sitting down for the photograph, smiling upward at the camera--a quiet, unassuming smile, so unlike the debonair air he had in Steve’s photos of him from the 1940s.

“Hillary told me they had this,” said Wanda.

Natasha had the frame in both hands and she looked down in it. “Wow. He doesn’t look so bad for a guy who’s been on the run. But, I guess the Tanners got him to clean up a  
little.” She handed back the photo frame to Wanda.

“He is very handsome,” said Wanda, smiling. “Not like in the past...but in a different way. Don’t you think?”

Natasha shrugged. 

Wanda replaced the photograph on the piano.

“You’re bitter, aren’t you?” Wanda asked. “About the two times he’s tried to kill you?”

“I’m not bitter. He’s...he isn’t killing people anymore, is he?”

“Well you don’t think he’s done.”

Natasha sighed and looked at the ground. “People like that...people like me...it’s hard to stop, once you’ve started. It’s hard to go straight, to find something worthwhile to do for  
a living. After Hydra killed his girlfriend in New Mexico...who’s to say he won’t go back?”

Wanda put her hand on Natasha’s shoulder. “Natasha. Steve is going to find him one of these days. And he will help Bucky. But he won’t be able to do it on his own. Would you consider giving him a chance?”

Natasha was still avoiding Wanda’s gaze.

“I’ll do it for Steve,” said Natasha. She owed Steve that much.

“But you won’t do it for yourself.”

Natasha straightened up. She was done talking about this. “I’m going to bed. Goodnight, Wanda.”

“Uh...goodnight.” 

Natasha went over to the couch and curled up under her blanket and sheet. Wanda went to the bathroom again and then got a drink of water. She found a hangar in the laundry room and hung up her Avengers’ uniform. She put the boots next to her makeshift bed. Then she sat down on her part of the couch. Natasha was already asleep. It must be nice to fall asleep quickly, Wanda thought to herself. 

The Tanners had the complete Harry Potter series in hardcover. She could pick up where she had left off in Prisoner of Azkaban, maybe read a chapter or two before going to sleep.

Then she heard a tapping on the screen door.

“Hedwig!”

Wanda ran over to the screen door and pulled back the blinds. Hedwig was perched at the bottom and tapping the glass. She hooted shrilly for Wanda to let her in. Wanda slid  
the screen door and Hedwig hopped onto her hand. Her talons pinched her a lot.

“You didn’t have to come all the way out here,” Wanda chided her. “How did you know where to come? You are thirsty, aren’t you?” Wanda went to the cupboard and got a bowl,  
and she filled it with some tap water and set it and Hedwig on the counter. There was also a note tied to Hedwig’s leg from Agent Marcie Johnson saying she’d received their report.

Natasha rolled over as Hedwig drank noisily. When Hedwig had sated her thirst, she flew over next to the living room couch and let Natasha pet her.

“You’re the real MVP, Hedwig,” Natasha said quietly.

Hedwig had more water to drink from the bowl, and then Wanda let her outside to stay in the backyard.


	7. Chapter 7

“Boss, are we ready to go yet?” Hillary asked Coulson the next morning in D.C.

“I’m as ready as I will be,” he said, fidgeting with his scarf. “I’m waiting for Agent Parsons to send me that fax.”

“I thought faxes were primitive,” said Hillary.

“Well, we won’t exactly have internet on the plane,” said Coulson. “How about you, do you have everything ready?”

“I’m just double-checking my email right now,” said Hillary, leaning over her computer. “Hmm, looks like Agent Parsons sent me a summary report of what they found.”

Coulson checked his watch. Their flight to Denver left in just over two hours. Even with their S.H.I.E.L.D. security passes they might still have to fight the holiday crowds. They were lucky to book the flights to Phoenix at all. Sam Wilson would be meeting them at the airport to drop off Natasha and Wanda’s personal effects.

Hillary finished reading the email and logged off. “Are you bringing anything for Hedwig?”

Coulson shrugged. “I figured we’d wait and find a pet store in Phoenix. I’m not sure the TSA would be all right with bringing raw meat on a plane.”

“Well, there’s plenty of rodents living in my backyard,” said Hillary. “If Hedwig makes it to my house, she’ll be fine. And I don’t think there will be any pet stores open at ten o’clock at night.”

“Right. Or on Thanksgiving.”

“That reminds me,” said Hillary, “I need to ask Mom to save Hedwig the giblets.”

A machine in Coulson’s office started humming.

“That’s the fax,” said Coulson, stepping back into his office. He watched as the machine produced the three scanned pages of Natasha’s letter to Parsons. While they were still warm, he folded them up and put them in his pocket.

“All right, we’re good,” he said. He picked up his briefcase and closed the office door. Hillary picked up her travel bag and the both grabbed their suitcases. A few people they passed on their way out of the office building wished them Happy Thanksgiving--well, Agent Klein did accidentally mutter “Merry Christmas.” But that was a negligible offense.

 

Before they boarded their plane, Hillary received a text from her mother that Hedwig had arrived at their house late last night. Jo Tanner and her son Cody had both been bewildered to see the snowy owl in their backyard that morning. Natasha let her in to have a drink of water. Mudder immediately hissed at the owl and ran to hide under the armchair, not coming out until Hedwig was back outside. 

Jo made a breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage for Natasha, Wanda, and Cody. Afterward, Cody got on the computer to check his social media accounts and play an online game. Wanda sat down on the couch to read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, taking the hardcover copy from the Tanners’ bookcase. Jo loaned Natasha an old, oversized beige sweater of hers and an old pair of Hillary’s jeans. Wanda had a blouse and pants that Hillary had left behind to wear. 

Natasha stood in the kitchen and watched Jo clean up the dishes after breakfast, content to listen and talk. Then Jo got to work on the pies for the next day’s Thanksgiving dinner.

“Anything I could help you with?” Natasha asked her.

“This is more of a one-man job,” said Jo. “And I’m not ready to start on anything else. I don’t need help right now. You work hard enough at being an Avenger, don’t you?”

“I don’t take a day off,” said Natasha. “I earn my keep. Wherever I’m at.”

Jo didn’t answer her.

“Any other dishes you’re making for dinner tomorrow?”

“Marie is making the green bean casserole and the cranberry sauce,” said Jo. “I’m doing the candied yams and the rolls and potatoes. We’re cooking the turkey tonight at the pit party.”

“Well, can I get started on something for you? I know how to make a Thanksgiving dinner.”

“If there’s something you can do for me, I’ll let you know,” said Jo. “You don’t have to do anything to earn your stay here.” Jo looked down at her pie dough and said no more.  
Natasha shrugged silently and left the kitchen. Examining the bookshelf, she saw a copy of Rob Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton and decided to maybe read it, see if she could pass the time. She plopped onto the couch where her makeshift bed had been last night.

After about half an hour, Cody got off the computer. He looked at Natasha and Wanda. “Would either of you like to use the computer?”

Natasha looked up. “Yeah, sure.” She dropped the book onto the corner of the couch and took over the chair at the computer.

“So what are you ladies up to today?” Cody asked her.

“Just hanging around, I suppose,” said Natasha. “But I’ll see if Cap has left anything for us in my email.”

“Cap, right,” said Cody. 

“So what are you doing today?”

Cody stretched and yawned a little. “Oh, just taking it easy, mostly. I’ve got to go get ready for work now.”

“Where do you work at?”

“Drake’s Sporting Goods on University. I’ve got to work the morning shifts tomorrow and Friday. But I should be off today in time for the pit party--you are coming to that, right?”

“I wasn’t aware we’d merited an invitation, aside from crashing at your house,” said Natasha, glancing over her shoulder at him.

“Well, Hillary might be here by then, and I’m sure she’d like you to come.”

“Hillary’s not going to be here until ten o’clock tonight,” said Natasha. 

“Well, you should come anyway. It’s with Mom’s extended family. Everybody comes together to cook their turkeys in my uncle’s backyard, and we have dinner and snack food. Kind of a pre-Thanksgiving party.”

“Well, if any of your mom’s family watches the news, they’ll know who Wanda and I am--or at least who I am.”

“And why should that be an issue?”

“A year and a half ago I dumped a buttload of secret government files onto the internet.”

“Ah. I was out of the country at the time. But Hillary’s told me about you. Your record doesn’t phase me. Should it?”

Natasha looked at him like she wanted to say ‘it should.’ But she remained silent.

“I’ll leave you alone now.”

Good for you, Natasha thought. She logged onto her private email. Steve had not sent her anything. He was probably already on the way to his cousins’. She sent him an email anyway, hoping it would reach his phone. He should have known by then that she and Wanda were all right and that they’d completed their assignment. The question was, should they await further orders or were they expected to go on break like everyone else?

Cody came back into the living room after a while, dressed in a polo shirt with the sporting goods’ store logo on it. He talked to his mother and asked her if he could get her anything or help her with anything. Jo told him to get to work and make sure he came home in time for the party.

Cody went to the side table by the front door to get his car keys. Then he heard Wanda laughing.

“Are you at the good part?” he asked her.

“Oh yes,” said Wanda. “A very good part. The map is talking back to Professor Snape.”

Cody laughed aloud. “That was always my favorite part. So Hillary was there, when you found Hedwig in London?”

“Yes,” said Wanda, closing her book with her thumb stuck between the pages. “Well, it was Vision the android and I who led the attack into the lab. Hillary came in with S.H.I.E.L.D. to clean up Hydra’s lab afterwards. She didn’t know about the owl until later. But she was one of the first to guess who the owl really was.”

“Well, how many snowy owls do you know that live in Britain and died in the Harry Potter books?” 

“Exactly,” said Wanda. “I am enjoying this series, although I am afraid I have had much of it spoiled for me.”

“Oh, really, how come?”

“Well, we tried to return Hedwig to her own dimension,” said Wanda. 

“Really?”

“Yes, and I was asked to use my powers to break through the interdimensional barrier at the Leaky Cauldron.”

“No way!” Cody’s jaw dropped. Even Jo perked up her head to listen.

“And then...we arranged to have a meeting with Harry Potter.”

“Whoa!”

“I had no idea who he was,” said Wanda.

“Tell me about it! What was he like?”

“Wanda,” Natasha called from over at the computer.

“Yes, Natasha?”

“You know that information is classified.”

“Classified for S.H.I.E.L.D. but not the Avengers,” Wanda retorted. Wanda told Cody what she recollected about the interview, protesting that she had no idea about Mr. Potter’s backstory at the time.

“But now you’re making up for it,” Cody said, smirking. “How about that? Well, I guess weirder things happen even without leaving your own dimension or whatever. I mean, Captain America’s best friend turned up here a year ago.”

“That is true,” said Wanda. “And who is to say it is all chance?”

“You’re right,” said Cody. “I don’t believe in coincidences. But I will say it’s too bad that I didn’t get to meet Bucky. I keep hearing great stuff about him. And I met him when I skyped last Christmas, briefly, but that’s never the same as meeting someone in person.”

Wanda laughed. “You are not the only one. I am sure...maybe I would have liked him. If I had known him. And maybe even Natasha. Who knows?”

Jo laughed from the kitchen. “He had a way with everyone,” she commented. “Even when he wasn’t trying.

Natasha really wished people would stop talking about Bucky. 

 

Cody went to work not long after that. About one o’clock in the afternoon, when the apple pie had come out of the oven, Trey came home from the garage to have lunch. Natasha and Wanda both made themselves sandwiches and then went back to their other activities, Wanda reading Harry Potter and Natasha using the computer, browsing social media aimlessly while waiting for some kind of a response from the Avengers or Coulson. Agent Parsons had emailed her saying he had faxed her report to Coulson (who faxes things these days? she had to ask herself) but that he and his S.H.I.E.L.D. team had everything else covered in regards to investigating Hydra’s new surprise base.

Mudder the cat came out to stalk around his domain. Wanda tried to get him to come to her. He did jump onto the couch next to her and sniff her, but he promptly jumped away. He did, however, rub himself against Natasha’s legs. Natasha did not pay attention to him. After a few minutes he went to the screen door to watch Hedwig hunt for mice in the backyard. The cat had nothing but envy and mistrust for the owl.

After Trey went back to work, Jo announced that she was going shopping.

“You are both welcome to come with me. I just need to pick up some supplies for the pit party tonight and some things for dinner tomorrow.”

“I will come,” said Wanda, putting down her book. “Natasha, would you like to come?”

“No, I’m good, thanks, she said, getting off the computer. “I think I’ll take a nap.”

“Suit yourself,” Wanda said. 

Jo had a pair of oversized tennis shoes and an old red windbreaker for Wanda to wear. She didn’t mind the shoes. It was cool outside, with low clouds hanging over the Valley. Wanda had her first look at a saguaro cactus as they drove out to the grocery store, planted in the parking lot of a neighbor’s house.

“It gets very hot here, in the summer?” said Wanda as Jo drove the suburban through the streets.

“Triple digits,” said Jo. “You’d better hope that the Avengers never get called out here in the middle of June. July and August, though, we get rainstorms. The monsoons, we call  
‘em.”

“Uh-huh,” said Wanda, looking around eagerly. “Are we close to the Grand Canyon?”

“If a six-hour drive is what you call close, then yes.”

“Do you travel there often?”

“No. The Grand Canyon is for the tourists--I’ve only been there once or twice. We go on vacation elsewhere--California, usually, when we want to go to the beach. But that’s not  
very often at all. All my grandbabies are right here.”

“You wish Hillary could stay here, too?”

“Yes,” said Jo. She paused for a moment, and then she said, “Her boyfriend, Mark, is from the east coast. But he survived the summer here and he’s got a good job. I think he wants to stay. If they get married…” Jo broke off and sighed. “If they got married they could stay here. And I think Hillary could easily get a transfer back to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Tempe office if she wanted to continue to work for them. She worked for them last year, after Hydra came out. She even helped quite a bit taking out Hydra in the area.”

Wanda nodded. “But Coulson will not part with her easily, I think.”

“He’s understanding, as far as bosses go. But I think he likes having her. Or Mark could just as easily move back east so Hillary could keep working in D.C. So we’ll wait and see.”

“Did Hillary tell you all this?”

“It’s just some thoughts I’ve been having,” said Jo. “I’ve just barely gotten Cody back home and he’s leaving again in January. Mike and Jonathan and Julia haven’t had any trouble staying put. But Cody and Hillary like to wander, I think.”

“She does not mind travel,” said Wanda. “But she will have had her fill of adventure soon.”

“How do you know?”

“Just...from what I know about her. She is attached to home.”

“How about you?” asked Jo. “Do you have a home?”

Wanda suddenly realized that she didn’t have an answer to that question. “I do not know, actually,” she said. “I lost my parents when I was little. My brother and I stayed with relatives and then lived on our own. And now my brother’s dead. I could never go back to Sokovia without him and be truly happy there, I think. And then the Avengers...they are nice people. But we’re not really a family. I don’t think upstate New York is quite home for me, either.”

“You and Natasha seem close.”

“Yes. She is good to me. And we are roommates. And I am close to the other Avengers in my own way. But we are not really united. A united, loving family, like the one you  
have, Jo--that is my dream, but that is something I have never had.”

Jo nodded as they pulled into the parking lot of the grocery store. “Well, I hope we can be your family, at least for the next couple of days.” 

Inside the grocery store, Wanda let her hand rest on the side of the shopping cart. Jo asked Wanda as they walked through the aisles if she wanted anything--snacks, bread, cereal. Wanda declined, nearly pleading with Jo that she didn’t need to be so kind. But it was what Jo wanted. She was a mother to everyone, even to strangers. 

Jo got her needed supplies without much trouble--evaporated milk, flour, and eggs for the pies, spices for the stuffing and marshmallows for the candied yams, a veggie tray and an assortment of cheeses for the pit party. There were a lot of people in the store, buying last-minute goods for their holiday dinners. When they drove home, Jo asked Wanda about the other Avengers and what they were planning for the holidays.

When they got home, Natasha was on the computer again.

“Did you take a nap?” Wanda asked after setting the groceries on the counter.

“A brief one,” said Natasha. “I just checked my email again. Steve returned my message. He wants me to interrogate some of the Hydra guys we captured and see what I can find out.”

“And when will that be?” asked Wanda.

“Friday morning, early.”

“And how long with that take?” Jo asked them.

“Dunno. Depends on how long they keep us,” said Natasha.

“Well, if you have time, I can take you girls Black Friday shopping.”

“Really?” asked Wanda.

“Jo, you’ve been generous enough already,” said Natasha. “But we’ll see. Steve wants us to find a ride on civilian aircraft by Saturday. We might not be able to fit much.”

“Well, it would be worth looking around,” said Wanda, with her arms folded.

“You just want to go Black Friday shopping, don’t you?” Natasha said to her. “Hm? Isn’t that next on your checklist of things to do in America, after Thanksgiving?” She smiled teasingly.

“I never said I had a checklist,” said Wanda, taking a can to put it away in the cupboard.

“Leave that out, honey,” said Jo. “I was going to work on the pumpkin pie next.”

“May I help?” 

“Sure,” said Jo. “Why don’t you get started with opening the can of pumpkin?” She handed Wanda a can of Libby’s pumpkin mix. She then turned to Natasha in the living room.  
“You’re welcome to help out, too.”

“What can I do?” asked Natasha.

“Well, you can help me get started on wrapping up the turkey,” said Jo. Natasha logged off the computer and went to the kitchen. The turkey had thawed overnight in a cooler kept in the utility room. Jo and Natasha took it to the sink to unpackage it, rinse it off, and get it ready for roasting. At Natasha’s request, Jo placed the giblets off to one side for Hedwig.

“Do you get to cook much, when you’re at home?”

“No,” Natasha shook her head, smiling. “I usually don’t have time to make anything elaborate. Just whatever I can stick in the microwave or boil on the stove. If I want to be  
domestic,” she said, bending down to a drawer beside the sink to pull out the tinfoil, “I go to my friend Barton’s house. He’s got a family. Big kitchen with plenty of space to burn  
things. I usually go to their place for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. And I usually have something to bring to their table.”

“Oh,” said Jo.

“But yeah, super hardcore assassin and an Avenger. I don’t have time to cook at home. Maybe I should make a dinner for the guys sometime, though.”

“We could do that before Christmas,” Wanda suggested.

“Hm, we’ll see.”

 

Trey Tanner came home from work at six and took the turkey to his brother-in-law’s. Cody came at six-thirty. At seven, Trey came back, and Jo, Cody, Wanda, and Natasha all  
piled into the suburban, with the ladies each carrying a tray of snacks for the party. In the backyard of John Morgan’s house was a large fire built on top of six roasting turkeys.  
The small living room and back porch were crowded with Jo’s siblings and their spouses, children, and grandchildren. The kitchen and dining room tables and counters were covered with platters of snacks and finger foods and drinks. Jo’s relatives were pleased to hear that Hillary was on her way but lamented that her plane did not get in until later that night. 

Wanda had been unsure that these people would be accepting of her and Natasha. In fact some of them recognized Natasha from the news and kept their distance and eyed them suspiciously. But as they were introduced to Jo’s extended family, Natasha was polite and outgoing, giving compliments to the outfits of Jo’s sisters and asking people about their careers and achievements. A few people gravitated towards them, drawn by Natasha’s lively laughter and pleasing words. A few people were put off when Natasha revealed that she and Wanda worked for the Avengers, but Natasha’s confidence and charm got them to warm up. And of course, they were pleased to hear that Natasha and Wanda were friends of Hillary’s. Natasha gave them some vague generalizations about her work and the other four Avengers but always deflected the conversation.

“How do you do it?” Wanda asked her when the two of them broke off to get a plate of snacks.

“I blend in with any setting,” said Natasha, shrugging as she collected a turkey-shaped sugar cookie on her plate. “It’s how I was trained as a spy. But I think if we want the  
Avengers to succeed, then we need to make a good impression on the ground. Let people know we want to help. Show them that we’re nice and normal and even fun people.”

Wanda looked at her quizzically as Natasha took a big bite of a cupcake. “You see,” she said as she swallowed, “if we can do that, then people won’t be afraid of us.”

“I thought the Captain wanted us to have a little privacy in our lives, and not be celebrities.”

“Well, Cap just doesn’t see how a little PR can go a long way in getting help.” Natasha carried her loaded plate in one hand and returned to the living room. “We’re celebrities  
whether or not we want to be.”

Wanda tried to follow Natasha’s lead and mingle, but she was not as good at making herself talk.

She wished she was back with the other Avengers. It was one thing to be celebrating Thanksgiving, but when she thought about it she would much rather have done it with people she knew better.

At nine o’clock, the Tanners and their two friends got back into the suburban to head home. Wanda leaned back in her seat, savoring the full feeling that came from all of the snacks she’d eaten.

“Jo,” Natasha spoke up. She leaned forward onto the driver’s seat.

“Yes, Natasha?”

“Are you really sure there isn’t anything Wanda and I could do for you? It’s just...you’ve been so kind to us. I just want to show you that I’m grateful.”

“Well,” said Jo thoughtfully, “why don’t we think about it? I’m sure there’s something you could do.”

Natasha was silent for the rest of the drive home. When they got out of the suburban, however, Jo took Natasha by the shoulder.

“Here’s a thought,” said Jo. “Why don’t you two make a dessert for us?”

“A dessert?” said Natasha.

“Yes. We already have plenty of pie. Maybe something different. Can you think of anything you’d like to make?”

Natasha was quiet for a moment. Then she looked Jo squarely in the eye.

“I’ll need a can of Libby’s pumpkin and some cream cheese.”

“I can go inside and check,” said Jo. They went into the house. Cody was on the computer playing a game and Trey was watching a football game on television. It took some digging, but Jo found a box of cream cheese in the fridge.

“Must’ve been left over from the cream cheese frosting I made for my grandson’s birthday,” said Jo, placing it on the counter by the sink.

“That will do,” said Natasha. She found a can of Libby’s pumpkin in the cupboard and ripped off the label.

“I want to help,” said Wanda.

“Good, can you get me a stick of butter and three eggs?” said Natasha. She got into a drawer and pulled out one of Jo’s aprons--off-white with a pale blue gingham frill. 

Natasha and Wanda collected the ingredients. Wanda found a plain black apron to wear and started measuring out the flour and sugar.

“You ladies let me know if you need anything,” said Jo. “I’ll be taking a break.” She went to her bedroom. Trey turned up the volume of his football game when Natasha used the  
hand mixer to stir the cake mix. She had Wanda prepare parchment paper on a cookie sheet before she poured the batter.

By the time the cake was in the oven, the butter and cream cheese for the icing had softened. Twenty minutes later, Trey and Cody had gone to their rooms, and the smell of pumpkin was coming out of the oven. Natasha took a deep inhale as she removed the cake tray from the oven.

“Now what do we do?” asked Wanda.

“Well, we turn it out of the pan and let it cool,” said Natasha. She got a towel out of a drawer and laid it on the bar. “Gimme some of that powdered sugar.” She sprinkled some powdered sugar onto the towel. Then she laid the cake upside-down on the towel and tried to pull off the cookie sheet. But the batter had cooked onto the metal. Natasha shook the tray and beat it a few times. 

“What’s the matter?” 

“It’s stuck,” Natasha grunted.

“Here,” said Wanda. She let her fingers hover over the tray and used her powers to loosen the cake. Natasha pulled off the tray: the cake came out clean.

“My word, I should keep you around, girl,” said Natasha.

“Not a problem. When do we put on the frosting?”

“We let the cake cool first,” Natasha instructed. She popped the beaters out of the hand mixer and handed one to Wanda. “Here.”

“So--this is pumpkin roll?” 

“Yep. Laura Barton showed me how to make it--of course, there’s a recipe printed on every can.” Natasha licked a large blob of cream cheese.

She and Wanda smacked their beaters with contentment. Then they began to wash the dishes they had used.

“Is Jo going to be doing any more baking tonight?” asked Wanda.

“I don’t think so,” said Natasha, looking at the kitchen clock. It was almost ten.

“When are Coulson and Hillary supposed to be arriving?”

“I have no idea.”

But Natasha spoke too soon. The kitchen door opened, and in came Hillary.

“Tasha!” said Hillary, smiling. Coulson was right behind her, and they were both carrying coats, bags, and suitcases.

Natasha dried her hands. “Need help carrying anything?”

“We’ve got it,” Coulson said, staggering into the kitchen with his baggage.

Hillary placed a small red suitcase on one of the bar stools. “This one is yours,” she said. She turned around. Wanda guessed that Hillary had forgotten that she and Natasha did not normally hug. But Natasha let her hug her anyway.

“It’s so nice to see you!” Hillary said.

“Likewise,” said Natasha. 

“What are you guys making?” asked Hillary, looking around.

“That’s pumpkin roll,” said Natasha.

“Pumpkin roll, you shouldn’t have!”

“Your mother said she wouldn’t let us do anything else for her.”

Hillary laughed. Coulson stuck his finger in the cream cheese frosting.

“Nuh-uh! I saw that!” said Wanda, shaking her finger. 

“What, you guys didn’t lick the beaters already?” asked Coulson, grinning at her.

Natasha shoved a towel at Coulson’s shoulder. Then she grabbed him and hugged him.

“Haww,” said Hillary as she briefly hugged Wanda as well. 

“So what did you get for us?” asked Natasha as she picked up the suitcase and carried it around the counter to the couch.

“Well, we never looked in it. But Maria said she packed it for you.”

“Oh, that’s nice of her,” said Natasha, unzipping the bag. She pulled out some clean shirts. “Ah. Good. A little wrinkled, though, but I’m pretty sure Jo’s got an iron.” She laid out  
the clothes on the couch. Wanda came over to look at them. There were a pair of pants and two blouses each, as well as clean underwear, shoes, and socks. It was such a relief to have their own clothes.

Jo and Trey and Cody came out of their rooms to greet Hillary and Coulson while Natasha and Wanda unpacked. Their wallets still had their contents intact and their cell phones had been turned off.

“Ugh, dang, she didn’t bring my charger,” said Natasha when she had handed Wanda hers.

“It is all right. I can use my powers--”

“Or I can just borrow your charger,” said Natasha. She put her phone in her pocket. She had several text messages but she would read them later.

Jo got into the fridge and set out leftovers from the pit party for Hillary and Coulson to eat, and she talked to them for a minute. Then she and Cody and Trey went to their rooms to get ready for bed.

“So what took you so long?” Natasha asked when she walked through the kitchen to get hangars for her and Wanda’s clothes.

“We had a three-hour layover in Denver,” said Coulson. “Not my favorite airport. But not the worst airport, either.”

“It was all right,” Hillary said, biting on a piece of celery. She didn’t mention it was bad enough being in Denver so soon after the miserable funeral she’d attended there.

“Where’s Hedwig? How’s she doing?”

“She’s in the backyard,” said Wanda. “I’ll go get her.”

But Coulson pre-empted her moving across the room and went to open the screen door himself. Mudder came darting through.

“I think the cat’s hungry,” said Hillary. She went to the utility room to get food and water for the cat.

Coulson only had to stick his face through the door. Hedwig, perched in the big tree in the backyard, came zooming over the lawn and landed on the sleeve of his suit jacket. She hooted.

“Ah, dang it, Hedwig, I didn’t get my glove on yet.”

“She used to do that with Harry all the time,” said Wanda.

“Well, I’m trying to be professional about it,” said Coulson. Hedwig hopped onto his shoulder. He slid the door closed and went back to his bar stool to finish eating. Hillary came  
back to the room. Wanda and Natasha hung up their shirts and put them in the coat closet, and then came back to the kitchen. 

“So you got my note?” Natasha asked Coulson. She found a spatula and started icing the pumpkin roll. 

“Yes I did,” said Coulson, chewing. He swallowed. “Well, I can’t always read your handwriting, though. I guess my eyesight’s going. I haven’t had a handwritten letter from you since Budapest.”

Natasha laughed quietly. “How can I forget? But you should still be able to read it. I left you love notes all the time back in the day.” She looked at Hillary. “I used to run around with Coulson the way you and Emily did.”

“Oh really?” said Hillary.

“Yep. Those were the days.”

Natasha and Wanda talked to Hillary and Coulson about last night’s attack on Hydra. Coulson filled them in on what Agent Parsons had discovered about the layout and agenda of the base in the last day.

“So they were definitely looking into mining eurekaite,” Coulson said. “But they hadn’t gotten the equipment yet. They were just wanting to secure the area first.”

“Well, it’s a good thing they went someplace away from a civilian population center,” said Natasha.

“Frankly, I think it was still too close,” said Wanda. “Natasha and I only had to walk a short distance to Hillary’s uncle’s cabin.”

“Oh yeah,” said Hillary. “I had the weirdest text when I got off the plane in Denver, from my cousin Sandra, Kenny’s daughter. ‘Two of your Avengers friends showed up at Dad’s cabin last night. And also a weird owl. Care to comment?’” Hillary laughed.

Hedwig chirped.

“And did you comment?” Natasha asked.

Hillary asked. “I was embarrassed, to be honest. But no, looking back that was actually kinda funny. Highlight of my day. It was a long day.”

“It was a long day for us, too,” said Natasha as she held the rolled-up cake in place. “Wanda, can you get me a plate?”

“I’ve got it,” she said, looking in the dishes cupboard. There was an elliptical serving dish on one of the upper shelves. She used her powers to make it levitate and float across  
the kitchen to the counter.

“Nice,” said Hillary. “And what have you two been doing?”

“Not much, laying around,” said Natasha. “Oh, that reminds me, Coulson, Cap wants us to be helping out Agent Parsons on Friday morning.”

“Fair enough,” said Coulson. “At least he gave us tomorrow off.”

“Well, he’s going to be with family, too, so he’s got enough to worry about. Is he close to these relatives of his?”

Coulson shrugged. “They’re...related to the cousins he had growing up in Brooklyn. I don’t think he was close to them to start with. They just invited him so he took them up on it.”

Natasha nodded. 

Mudder the cat came out of the utility room. He stopped in the middle of the kitchen floor. Hedwig looked down at him. Mudder looked up, feeling petty contempt that a creature who would have killed him had taken over his territory instead. He gave a low growl.

Hedwig puffed herself up and glared at the cat. Mudder was puffing himself up too. Hedwig clicked her beak.

“Hedwig,” Coulson said.

“Is Hedwig going to attack her?” asked Natasha.

“No,” Wanda and Coulson said at almost the exact same time.

“I think Mudder’s just asserting his dominance,” said Hillary. She was guessing, but if you asked Wanda she would say she guessed right.

Mudder slipped backwards, leaning on his rear haunches as though springing to pounce. Hedwig straightened up. Wanda thought maybe she was about to stretch her wings. Then she leaned away.

Mudder relaxed and returned to the utility room, but uttered a deep growl of warning.

The four humans in the room sighed in relief.

“Good girl, Hedwig,” said Coulson. He reached up to tap her talons. She squeaked and reached to bite him. “I guess she’s still in a bad mood.”  
Jo returned to the room.

“So, Jo, who all’s coming to dinner tomorrow?”

“Well, actually, I did just get a text from Greg and Julia--my daughter and son-in-law. The dinner with his parents will be at the same time as ours. But they’ll come and say hi  
afterward. They mostly want to see you, Hillary.”

Hillary nodded. “Yeah, it would be a shame not to see Julia. She sent me a pic of her baby bump--she’s getting huge.”

“Is it a boy or a girl?” asked Natasha.

“It’s a girl,” said Hillary, smiling. 

“So anyway, for dinner it will be the four of us, the three of you, and Jon and Marie and Maddie and Tayson. And then Mark will be here.”

“Yes, he did send me a text today,” said Hillary. “He’s still planning on coming.”

“Mark?” asked Wanda.

“Mark,” said Natasha, smiling slowly.

“Finally I get to meet this kid,” said Coulson, rubbing his hands together. He looked at Hillary. “How long has it been since you last saw him?”

“Not since Grace died,” said Hillary. She looked at Hedwig. “So...yeah, a lot’s happened since then. We’ve skyped a couple of times. But mostly calls and texts. It’s just as well  
his family lives on the east coast because then he can keep track of time zones...but anyway.”

“Have you met his family?” asked Natasha. “I heard Coulson saying once they lived close to D.C.”

“Yeah, they’re from Maryland. They took me out to lunch right before we went to London--well, his two sisters, anyway. They seem nice. I’d like to spend more time with them.”

“And how’s Mitch doing, by the way?” Natasha asked.

“He’s doing great. He has a brother who just got a job for the State Department and moved to the D.C. area,” said Hillary. “He’ll be spending Thanksgiving with them.”

“And working overtime while he’s at it,” said Coulson.

“Well it’s lucky he has someplace close by,” said Jo.

Hillary went to the screen door while the others talked. Coulson had left the blinds open. Hillary raised her hand to close them--but then she held on to the string and just  
looked out into the dark backyard.

Natasha checked her phone but then looked up. Hillary saw her staring back.

“What?”

“What are you looking at?”

“It was a year ago tonight,” said Hillary. She looked at the clock. “About right now, I heard a knock on this screen door. I came and answered it. I was cooking the rolls for Thanksgiving dinner. I’d been leaving him treats outside but he could smell the rolls when they came out of the oven. He was hungry.” She looked outside again. “I never would have thought...I only wanted to give him something to eat and let him go.”

“You thinking about Bucky?” Coulson asked her.

“Yes,” said Hillary. She sighed. Then she closed the blinds.

A part of her was waiting for him to come back. A part of her wished she’d never even noticed him.

Wanda watched her with her arms folded. Hillary took her plate to the sink and rinsed it. The owl was watching Hillary, too, wondering what the matter was.

“I’m sure he’s okay,” said Coulson. “He can take care of himself. He’s good at that.”

“I’m sure he is,” said Hillary. She picked up her suitcase. “I’m going to unpack and get ready for bed.”

When Hillary had left the room, Coulson looked at Natasha and Wanda. “So I do have a reservation for a hotel,” he said. “I booked two rooms. One of them is yours.”

“Well, thank you, Coulson,” said Natasha. “I was thinking I’d like to stay here, actually.”

“Oh. Where are you sleeping?”

“On the couch. It’s not so bad, is it, Wanda?”

“No, it is not,” said Wanda. 

“You can go by yourself to the hotel if you want, though.”

“Oh, no, I’d rather stay here with you,” said Wanda. She smiled at Natasha. “Unless it costs too much to cancel your reservation--” 

“No, no, it’s not much trouble at all,” said Coulson. “Please, go ahead and stay here if you like.”

“You won’t be lonely at the hotel, will you?”

“I don’t get lonely,” Coulson said. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, Wanda divined. “Besides, I’ll bribe the manager and bring Hedwig. You’ll keep me company, won’t you, girl?” He  
stroked Hedwig’s feathers. She chirped at him. She had calmed down from her standoff with the cat.

Natasha folded her arms and looked at Coulson. “I knew that owl would do you a lot of good.”

“Oh, Natasha, guess what?” said Coulson suddenly.

“You called the Cellist!”

“Yes!” Coulson jumped off his stool and Natasha hugged him. Hedwig flew off irritably and perched on the armchair to preen.

“How is she?” Natasha asked when they broke apart. She sat on the stool next to Coulson’s. “How did you get a hold of her? Or did she call you? Tell me everything!”

“Well, Hedwig was a big part of that, actually.” Coulson started to fill her in on the details. Natasha listened eagerly.

“That’s so romantic,” Natasha said. “Coulson, we’ve gotta tell Tony and Pepper! They’ve been dying to hear about this!”

“Well, I’m definitely telling Pepper,” said Coulson. “But Tony--I’m not so sure about. I mean, I haven’t exactly told everybody in the world about Hedwig. I feel like I need to be careful.”

“You don’t have to give them all the details.”

“Yes, well, I’m just not sure how Tony would react, if I told him the full story,” said Coulson, shifting on his bar stool. “Tony’s...been really busy, lately. Have you heard about what he’s been up to?”

“I’ve heard this and that,” said Natasha. “I don’t blame you if you don’t trust him, Coulson.”

“Whoa, I’m not saying I don’t trust Tony Stark,” said Coulson, raising his hands. “I’m just saying, I feel the need to be careful. And Tony...well, you’ve seen him as recently as I have. You know that he hasn’t been the same since Ultron.”

“Have any of us?” Natasha said.

“I guess not,” said Coulson. He carried his plate over to the sink and rinsed his dishes.

Hillary returned to the front room, wearing a pair of loose pajamas.

“Ah, this is so much better,” said Hillary. She walked into the living room and held a hand up to Hedwig perched on the armchair. “Hello, Hedwig.” Hedwig nibbled her finger. Then Hillary strolled over to the piano. “Ah, piano! How I have missed you!” She leaned downward and stretched out her arms to hug the instrument.

Coulson leaned over to check the clock. It was eleven-thirty. “Isn’t it a little late for music?”

“Nah, my parents sleep with their door shut,” said Hillary. “I’ll just serenade you gallas real quick before bed.” She opened the keyboard cover and sat down at the piano bench. “You don’t mind Christmas music before Thanksgiving, do you?”

“No,” Natasha shook her head.

“Just play whatever,” said Coulson.

“Good, because this one’s been stuck in my head.” Hillary started playing “Silver Bells.” She hadn’t played in weeks, but her fingers flew over the keys naturally, improvising a harmony line as she went. Her audience clapped quietly when she finished.

“Girl, can I get you a keyboard for Christmas?” asked Coulson.

“I don’t know if I’d use it, boss,” said Hillary as she closed the keyboard cover again. “I’d much rather play this old thing than any other piano in the world, I’ve come to find out.”

“You are a wonderful pianist, Hillary,” said Wanda.

“Thanks. I’ll have to play some more for you tomorrow. Are you taking them with you to the hotel, boss?”

“Actually, they said they’d rather stay here,” said Coulson.

“Oh, really? Well, I guess I’ll get their sheets out of the closet,” said Hillary.

“All right then. I’ll be over tomorrow pretty early to hang out, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” said Hillary. 

He exchanged goodnights with Hillary, Wanda, and Natasha. Then he summoned Hedwig and left through the kitchen door, carrying his bags behind him with Hedwig riding on the main suitcase.


	8. Chapter 8

Natasha and Wanda put the dishes in the dishwasher while Hillary went to the hall closet for their bedding. Then they changed into their borrowed pajamas, since Maria had neglected to pack any of theirs, and went to the living room.

“Well, how about it?” asked Hillary as she helped Natasha set up her bed. “Do you think you’d like to go shopping on Friday, if we get any time?”

“I dunno,” said Natasha. “You know, I suppose Wanda can have the red suitcase. I can get another one on Friday. Then we might have room to take some stuff back. Who knows.”

“Do you got anyone to buy for?”

Natasha smirked. “Barton.”

“The hawk and his offspring, right--yes, Coulson told me. But your secret’s safe with me. I’ve got my own nieces and nephews to buy for. And I’m going to start stocking up on stuff for Julia’s baby, since I might not be here for the baby shower--dang, I hate to miss the baby shower for my sister’s firstborn. But it won’t kill me. I’ve missed for the last two babies in the family.” She fluffed up the pillow for Natasha and set it on the end of the couch. “There you go. I know it’s probably not the most comfortable bed in the world--”

“I don’t need much,” said Natasha. “I’ve slept on worse.” She sat on her made-up bed and pulled the blanket up.

Hillary laughed quietly.

“What?”

“And you think you wouldn’t get along with Bucky if you met him--I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you by bringing that up.”

“It’s all right,” said Natasha, but she was still a little miffed about it.

“Would it bother you if I told you that when he first came here he slept in the exact same spot where you’re sleeping now?”

“Meh. A bed’s a bed.” Natasha was very bothered by that notion. But she wasn’t going to show it in any way that Hillary could see. 

“Well, let us know if you girls need anything,” said Hillary, turning to leave the room.

Wanda looked at Natasha. “You are bursting to tell her--”

“What? That I can’t stay in the same house as the man who almost killed me?”

“Is that why all the extra effort to please?”

“No.” Natasha almost felt hurt by the question.

“I am sorry.”

“For what?” said Natasha. “Good night.” She laid down on her pillow and closed her eyes. 

But Wanda could feel Natasha’s mind still going. Wanting to help out around the house was part of Natasha’s natural kindness and generosity and her way of making up for the life she could never have. But it also came from something that the Red Room had instilled in her: to do her best in everything she put her hands to. Of course that strictly applied to killing, but the principle had other merits. 

She had to be the best in everything. Otherwise she was never convincing--she was never good enough.

Part of the reason Natasha was so scared and bothered by the Winter Soldier was that he represented her failure to live up to that ideal. She had failed to protect one of his intended targets in Odessa. When S.H.I.E.L.D. fell she had failed to kill him--and failed to prevent Steve from discovering what Hydra had done to Bucky Barnes. But on the other hand, had she killed the Winter Soldier and the mask come off later, Steve might not have forgiven her. And all of that hung over Natasha like a cloud. A cloud she wanted to ignore.

Wanda went to the bookcase to break out Harry Potter. She was almost done with Prisoner of Azkaban and she was enjoying it immensely. While she read the last four chapters, Mudder the cat came back into the living room. He groomed himself from the armchair. He went over to Wanda and curled up on her lap for a brief nap, but he ended up wandering over to Natasha and sleeping on top of her. Though asleep, Natasha welcomed the cat. He purred so loudly that Wanda could hear him across the living room. Finally Wanda finished the book and turned off the main light using her powers. The main illumination came from the fishtank in the corner behind the couch, and the sound of the strumming tank filter lulled Wanda to sleep.

Thanksgiving day arrived in the East Valley with overcast skies. Natasha and Wanda both woke around nine but stayed on the couch dozing for about half an hour. They watched Cody get up and leave to go to work. Finally Hillary came into the kitchen grab some breakfast, dressed in her yellow bathrobe.

“Are you ladies awake?” she asked.

Wanda groaned and Natasha rolled over.

“Dang, are you two gonna sleep all day? We’ve got company coming in a few hours--namely Coulson.”

Natasha sat up on her side of the couch, her hair frizzy and mussed and her eyes squinting--in short, in all her morning glory. Wanda showed a little more benefit from her beauty rest but stayed wrapped up in her blanket as she sat up and tucked her legs under the couch. Her mind was still processing the fact that she’d just finished Prisoner of Azkaban last night.

Hillary turned on the main kitchen light. She sat down at the bar and cut up a slice of apple pie with a fork. “Do you girls mind if I turn on the TV?” she asked. “I wanna watch the Thanksgiving Parade.”

“Sure,” said Wanda.

Natasha found the remote in the corner of the couch. “Here, what channel?”

“Ten.”

Natasha turned on the television set and changed it to the appropriate channel. 

“What is this?” Wanda asked.

“The Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in New York,” said Natasha.

On the screen, Wanda could see the familiar buildings of lower Manhattan in the backdrop and even a glimpse of Stark Tower behind a balloon of a cartoon character. She watched the parade until the next commercial break. She recognized some of the companies and characters on the floats. When the station went to commercial, she got up and stretched. Hillary offered her and Natasha some pie for breakfast. They had just a slice each, hoping to save most of it for after dinner and to make room for the turkey and potatoes.

Trey came out and went to pick up the roasting turkey from his brother-in-law’s. Natasha and Wanda watched the parade and during commercials got themselves ready for the day. Natasha put on a green blouse that brought out the color of her eyes. Wanda put on a red one--it would draw attention to her superhero identity but it didn’t matter. It was either that or a white one, and she didn’t want to spill gravy on it. Besides, red had always been her favorite color. She didn’t need to stop wearing it.

They put on their borrowed aprons after that and helped Jo and Hillary to prepare the dishes for Thanksgiving dinner. At around half-past noon, Coulson arrived, stepping through the kitchen door with Hedwig on his shoulder. 

“How are we doing, ladies?” he asked as he approached Natasha, who was cutting vegetables for the stuffing.

“Doing all right,” said Natasha. “Agent Tanner here didn’t let us sleep in, though.”

“What, you think I would have let her?”

“Is it a conspiracy?”

“No.”

Natasha went back to chopping the celery. Coulson continued to watch her.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing. I just don’t get to see you doing this sort of thing often.”

“Do you wanna take a video or a photo and send it to Steve so he can torment me about it?”

“No--but that sounds like a good idea, actually.”

Natasha hacked aggressively at the celery. “I might kill you if you do.”

“Now, Natasha, we don’t need to be making death threats at my house,” said Hillary, who was by the stove monitoring the progress of the boiling potatoes.

“I do what I want.”

Wanda laughed.

“What are you doing, Wanda?” Coulson crossed the kitchen to look over the shoulders of Wanda and Jo.

“We are making the rolls,” said Wanda, pulling her hands out as Jo took the handle of the hand-mixer.

“We’re running a little late this year,” said Jo. “But they’ll be fresh.”

“Fresh and piping-hot for dinner,” said Coulson. “Excellent. Anything I can do to help?”

“We should be covered,” said Jo. “Why don’t you have a seat?”

“That’ll be all right,” said Coulson. “I brought some work to do.” He had an iPad in a case tucked under his arm. He went over to the armchair in the living room and sat down. Hedwig jumped off his shoulder and sat on top of the chair. Mudder the cat was in the corner section of the couch, and he gave a deep growl when he saw the owl. Hedwig gave a chirp in reply.

“Need me to put the cat out?” asked Hillary.

“I think Hedwig can handle this,” said Coulson, not looking up from his iPad. Hillary wasn’t sure if he just didn’t notice that the owl was itching to have a fight with the cat, but Wanda knew that Coulson was perfectly aware of what was happening.

Shortly after this, Trey returned with the roasted turkey in his arms, and he set it up on top of the dryer next to the pies. Mudder darted out of the living room and went out the kitchen door.

“Stupid cat,” Hillary muttered.

At one, Cody returned from work. He hadn’t been in the house three minutes when Hillary got a phone call.

“Hello? Hey Mark! Happy Thanksgiving! Okay..uh-uh, we’re just getting things started up here....You too. Bye.” She hung up. “Mark is on his way over here,” she announced.

“How are those potatoes coming on?” Jo asked, going over to the stove.

“I think they’re done,” said Hillary. “Or just waiting to be mashed, anyway.”

“All right,” said Jo. “You can take a break. Get yourself cleaned up and ready for your boy to come over.” She kissed Hillary’s cheek. Hillary left the kitchen.

Trey went to the living room and chatted with Coulson. He got a rough summary of Hedwig’s story and had a good laugh over it. Hedwig mostly preened herself during the conversation. Trey talked to Coulson about his work at the garage. Cody came to the living room and checked his Facebook briefly, then he, Coulson, and Trey pulled out the table extensions. Hillary came back dressed in a clean blouse and with her makeup done, and she sat down to play the piano.

Come, ye thankful people, come;  
Raise the song of harvest home.  
All is safely gathered in  
Ere the winter storms begin.

She hadn’t been serenading them long when there was a knock on the front door. “I’ll get it,” she said. She opened it and let her boyfriend inside. He was just barely taller than she was and had short, dark, curly hair, and he wore glasses, a cardigan, and skinny jeans.

“I told you, you can start coming through the kitchen door.”

“I keep forgetting,” he answered, laughing.

“That’s okay,” said Hillary, collapsing into his arms to hug him. Then she led him into the house. 

“Who do we have here?” asked Mark as he surveyed the kitchen and living room. 

“I’ve got some more superhero company, you could say,” said Hillary. She led him by the hand to Coulson. “Coulson, this is Mark Lawson, who I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about.”

“I sure have,” said Coulson, sitting up to shake hands with him. “How are you?”

“Good, good,” said Mark. “It’s nice to finally meet you, sir.” He saw the owl perched on top of the armchair. “Now what’s this? Or who is this, rather?”

“This is Hedwig.”

“The Hedwig?” Mark looked at Hillary in disbelief.

“What if it wasn’t?” said Hillary. “Go ahead, you can pet her, she’s nice.”

“Nice to everyone except the cat,” Coulson commented dryly.

“A-ha!” said Mark. He stroked Hedwig’s feathers and let her nibble his finger. “Come on, Hillary, you hang out with superheroes all the time, don’t tell me this isn’t the Hedwig. Did you bring her back from London?”

“Yeah,” Hillary shrugged.

Mark turned to Hillary’s father and greeted him. Mark and Hillary then went to the kitchen. Jo gave Mark a hug. 

“Mark, this is Natasha Romanoff,” said Hillary, presenting him to Natasha. “But of course you know her as Black Widow. Natasha, this is Mark Lawson.”

“At long last,” said Natasha.

“How do you do?”

Wanda was watching them expectantly when Hillary turned Mark to her.

“And who might you be?” Mark asked.

“Scarlet Witch--Wanda Maximoff,” said Wanda, smiling.

“Scarlet Witch--you must be one of the new Avengers,” said Mark. “Nice to meet you.

I hung out with Captain America when he was in S.H.I.E.L.D. school.”

“We did,” said Hillary, nudging Mark in the ribs. “Come on, let’s go outside. We’ve got some catching up to do.” 

“I suppose we’ll talk later,” he said to Wanda, waving as Hillary slid open the screen door and dragged him outside.

From the kitchen window and the screen door, Wanda could see Mark and Hillary in the backyard, holding hands and talking together quietly, often standing close and cuddling. 

“They’re cute, aren’t they?” Natasha commented to Wanda.

Wanda smirked.

Around two o’clock, Jon and Marie Tanner came through the kitchen door with their children Maddie and Tayson. Marie and Jon went to the living room to be with Trey and  
Coulson. Maddie ran into the kitchen and Jo immediately scooped her up with a hug. Wanda leaned over to say hello.

“Maddie, these are Auntie Hillary’s friends Natasha and Wanda,” Jo said to her. 

“Hi, I’m Maddie!” the little girl exclaimed.

“It is nice to meet you,” said Wanda. Natasha laughed.

Maddie looked at her grandmother. “Granny, is Bucky coming back for Thanksgiving?”

Jo sighed. “I’m afraid not. He’s gone a long ways away.”

“Aww,” said Maddie. Jo bent down slowly to let Maddie down. But as she stepped backwards she nearly tripped over an open drawer--Tayson had pulled it open and was  
throwing out its contents.

“Tayson! No no!” said Jo, regaining her balance and turning around.

Tayson laughed and pulled out a plastic lid.

“Tayson, you give that back to Granny,” said Jo. “Give it here.” She held out her hand and tried to take the lid from him.

“No no!” said Tayson loudly. He stepped away, picking up a second pot lid from the floor and banging the two together while mumbling incoherently.

“Tayson, gimme those,” said Jo crossly. She finally wrenched the lids away from Tayson. He knelt back down on the floor and started rummaging through the tupperware. Jo picked him up.

“Now, now, Tayson,” said Jo. “Let’s go outside and play with Aunt Hillary.” Jo carried him over to the screen door, excusing herself while she moved past Wanda and Natasha.

“I wanna go outside!” shouted Maddie from the living room. She ran across to the screen door and stepped outside behind Tayson. As they emerged from the porch, Hillary and Mark went to greet the two children and then helped them to climb on the trampoline. Hillary got onto the tramp and bounced with the kids while Mark watched.

A few minutes before three o’clock, Trey Tanner carved the turkey and put it on the table. Hillary, Mark, and the two grandchildren were called inside. Everyone took their seats around the table while Coulson let Hedwig into the backyard.

Tayson was directed to sit on the piano bench with his sister.

“Granna, where my high chair?” he asked, pointing.

“You’ve gotten too big for your high chair, Tayson,” said Jo. “It won’t kill you to sit at the table like a grown-up.”

“He still eats like a savage,” Marie commented dryly.

Natasha and Wanda sat next to Jo while Coulson sat opposite them next to Mark. 

Trey looked around at the assembled family and friends. He looked at Natasha.

“Now, Natasha, I’m not sure what you and Wanda’s views on religion are but we usually say a blessing on the food before we eat.”

“Oh, I don’t mind,” said Natasha. “Go right ahead.”

Trey looked at his son Jon. “Jon, will you say it?”

“I’d be happy to.”

Jon kept the prayer brief, and then they started to serve themselves and to eat. 

“This isn’t one of those dinners where you go around the table and say what you’re thankful for, is it?” asked Natasha.

Everyone laughed. 

“We make it a point not to do that, actually,” said Trey.

“Though I do wish,” added Jo, “that we had some way during the day of stopping and counting our blessings.”

Everything was delicious. Jon asked Cody about his upcoming transfer to BYU and his prospects for getting into dental school. Natasha asked Marie about her children and Maddie would loudly interrupt her mother sometimes, and she often spoke with her mouth full.

Coulson had apparently been to the Tanners’ before and the conversation he made with Jon was more to renew their acquaintance. But he did have to talk around the question of the owl at one point, muttering “I’m afraid that’s classified” and shoving a mouthful of potatoes into his mouth.

It was one of the finest dinners that Wanda had ever eaten in her life. The turkey meat was a little dry but that wasn’t anything the delicious gravy couldn’t fix. And the rolls were simply heavenly: Wanda ate no less than four. She pestered Jo with questions about why they ate the specific foods, but Jo didn’t really have any idea where they came from.  
At long last, everyone was full. Jo and Hillary insisted that Natasha and Wanda did not have to help clean up, but they didn’t mind and started to carry plates and bowls back to the kitchen. Cody and Mark went to the living room, and Jon took the children there to play with the kids.

“So what’s next for the Avengers, do you know?” Trey asked. Natasha was in the kitchen scrubbing plates but she and Wanda both wondered what Coulson would have to say on the matter. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

“Not at all.”

“Well, I’m concerned that they might not be able to keep this up. It seems like they’re doing a great job protecting the world. I’m not saying I don’t support what they’re doing, in fact I think it’s a great idea. They’re the best defense we have. Hillary’s experience when Hydra came out was shattering for her. And we don’t show it much but it affected me and Jo, too.”

“I understand that,” said Coulson. “It was shattering for a lot of people. But then what happened with Ultron seemed to have bigger consequences. Not a day has gone by in the past six months that we haven’t had a call from someone complaining that the Avengers are too powerful and need to be stopped. But S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t have the power to say what the Avengers can and can’t do--it was the agreement with Captain Rogers that we would give them support when needed, nothing more.”

“Well you seem to be doing a lot of that.”

“Yeah, we do. Most of it’s damage control. Fun stuff like the little escapade in Payson recently doesn’t happen that often--at least in comparison.”

“Well, do you ever think that damage control might not be enough to influence public opinion that the Avengers are doing an okay job?”

“It’s nowhere near enough,” said Coulson. “Public opinion is out of our control, and right now the press and the government are influencing people to think that the Avengers are a threat--not just to what’s threatening them, but to everyone.” Coulson glanced at Natasha and Wanda in the kitchen. “I dunno,” he said, rubbing his forehead in his hands. “I get a migraine just thinking about it--all that work just to have the media clamoring for the Avengers to be stopped. They weren’t supposed to be a permanent organization--it’s what Fury would have liked, I’m sure. But Captain Rogers believes it’s the best way to protect the world. And he’s right. We can’t raise armies or send S.H.I.E.L.D. agents against the type of stuff that Hydra comes up with. But you know, sometimes, I do wonder, what if something goes wrong, what if…” He broke off, shaking his head.

“So it’s S.H.I.E.L.D. helping out the Avengers mostly, is that correct?” Trey asked.

“Well, yeah, and that without government support--we get government revenue, sure, but not much else. And there’s no private organizations interested in supporting us. U-Gin Genetics from Korea gives us tech and staff and they’re partly supported by the Korean government, but that government has no say over who they choose to work for.”

“Uh-huh.”

“But beyond that, supply money to the Avengers--money for arms and tech--a lot of people think that’s tantamount to making them corporate mercenaries. I don’t think Steve would ever accept help from a corporate sponsor, mind you. But I think if they do anything to regulate the Avengers, it will be to prevent a private organization from funding them. We have a small contract with Stark Industries, but their government contracts make it legal for them to work with us.”

“Yeah, about that,” said Trey. “According to the news Tony Stark isn’t interested in doing superhero stuff anymore. And you know, it surprises me because Stark was one of the people who supported the Avengers the most, apart from Captain America. Why is that?”

“Well, saying he’s not interested in doing superhero stuff is a gross generalization,” said Coulson. “He’s not done being Iron Man, that’s for sure. But, the events of last May...it’s kind of hard to tell you how he was affected without revealing classified information,” Coulson said, his hands folded together on the table. “But let’s just say that he felt he was partly responsible for what happened.”

“Okay,” Trey nodded.

“So understandably, he’s taking a break. But I think he might be trying to find ways to make up for what happened.”

“I’ve heard about his recent charity work.”

“Yeah, well, it goes beyond that,” said Coulson.

“Well, is he still on good relations with the current Avengers team, and Captain Rogers?”

“I think so,” said Coulson. “At least some of the team members seem to be still getting along with him. Colonel Rhodes and the Vision are both spending Thanksgiving at Stark’s.” Coulson leaned closer to Trey and whispered, “But between you and me, relations are kind of frosty between the Avengers and Stark Tower right now. They don’t really communicate a lot. Cap doesn’t really make it a point to talk to him, ask for his input on projects. But I get the feeling Stark isn’t really interested.”

Trey was quiet for a moment. “That’s too bad,” he said finally. “Maybe they’re just letting each other go their own way. Well,” he looked at Coulson and patted him on the back,  
“I’m sure it’ll work out.” Trey got up from the table.

“I dunno, Trey,” said Coulson, partly to himself. “I’ve kind of got a bad feeling about this.” 

 

The dishwasher was loaded and running. Natasha decided she wanted some fresh air, and so she, Hillary, and Mark went to the backyard with Maddie and Tayson. But when they opened the door, Mudder the cat came inside and went straight to the utility room. Coulson also went outside to bring in Hedwig, and Hedwig perched on the back of the armchair and preened herself. 

After munching on a few bites of cat food, Mudder went to the screen door and stared outside for a few minutes. Wanda was watching him from the living room couch where she was talking with Coulson and the Tanners. Mudder did not want to go outside. But he did not want to confront the owl either. 

Slowly, Mudder walked into the living room. He went and sat on the floor next to the armchair and looked up at the owl. The owl, perched on the side of the seat, looked down at him. The two animals stared at each other with furrowed brows but didn’t blink. After a moment the humans took notice.

“What are they doing?” asked Marie.

“I think they’re trying to establish dominance,” said Coulson. 

“I think you are not far off,” said Wanda. “The cat thinks the owl is a threat. Hedwig thinks the cat wants to hurt her.”

“You don’t say,” said Jo. 

Coulson shrugged. “Why can’t they be friends?”

“Mudder might be accepting of certain humans, after a while,” said Trey. “But another animal is where he draws the line. He’s a selfish bugger. We just spoil him a bit too much.”

“Well, not unlike some people I know,” said Jon. 

Mudder arched his back and let out a deep growl. Hedwig let out her wings a little and hooted at him. Mudder jumped. Hedwig shot into the air and flew across the room to the piano--knocking over the picture of Bucky.

“Hedwig!” shouted Wanda and Coulson. Jo went for the cat, plucking him off the couch before he could get comfortable. She went to the screen door and threw him outside.

Coulson went over to the piano and held out his arm. “Hedwig, here.” Hedwig flew to his arm, obedient as a dog but glaring resentfully at the humans. He let her perch on the back of the couch next to the fish tank.

Wanda picked up the picture. The frame and glass were all made from cheap plastic (only because Jo had felt Bucky wouldn’t have cared for a nice frame, had he known they had his picture at all) so nothing was damaged. 

Coulson took the picture for a moment and looked at it. “When was this taken?”

Jo had returned to the couch and sat down next to Trey. “Last April.”

“Ah.” Coulson nodded. He replaced the photo frame on top of the piano. At least Hedwig hadn’t knocked over any of the glass pieces on there.

“Tell me, Coulson, if you don’t mind me asking,” Jo spoke up, “have you found any sign of him?”

“We haven’t,” said Coulson gravely. “He’s nowhere in Albuquerque or nearby. S.H.I.E.L.D. is keeping a lookout in other parts of the country. And oddly enough we haven’t found any sign of people from Hydra trying to look for him. Well, they say no news is good news, sometimes,” said Coulson. “I am sorry.”

Wanda was seated next to Jo. She put her hand on Jo’s back and tried to rub it. 

A part of Jo had hoped Bucky would turn up today.

Well, the day wasn’t over.

“Well, is it time for dessert?” Jon asked, looking up at his parents.

“Have you digested all that turkey yet?” Trey said. 

Just then, Jo got a text message.

“Julia says they’re on their way,” she said. “We can do dessert as soon as they’re here. It won’t take long.”

Natasha and the children returned from outside. Mark and Hillary remained outside, talking on the back porch. Maddie ran up to her grandparents.

“Granny, is it time for pie?” she asked.

“Almost, dear,” said Jo, stroking Maddie’s curly hair. 

“What’s this, you’ve got leaves in your hair?” said Marie, suddenly leaning forward to pull bits of debris in Maddie’s pigtails.

“I jumped in the leaf pile,” said Maddie.

“You shouldn’t have done that, now you’re all dirty.”

“Natasha made it for us. And Tayson jumped in it, too.”

“Where’s Tayson?” Marie asked, suddenly looking around. She heard the sound of a drawer opening in the kitchen. She ran out of the living room. 

Natasha sat down on the couch next to Wanda and Jo. “I just got a text from Barton. He wants to give us a Skype call later tonight.”

“Oh, yes, I’d love to call them,” said Wanda eagerly. She looked at Coulson. “Will that be all right with you?”

“Yes, of course,” said Coulson. “But may I suggest we do it after everyone leaves? He may want to hear about your mission.”

“Good idea,” said Natasha. “Are you calling anyone special today?”

“Yes,” said Coulson, smiling slowly. “Maybe a little while after we eat the pie.”

Hillary and Mark came into the house, still holding hands as Hillary slid the screen door open and closed. Mark excused himself to go to the bathroom. Hillary went to the living  
room to join her family.

“What were you two talking about out there?” Natasha asked her.

Hillary shrugged. “Stuff.”

Wanda smiled and looked away. They had been discussing very important “stuff.”

Only a few minutes later, as they all sat in the living room talking except for Jo and Hillary as they started to slice the pies, the kitchen door opened. Hillary put her knife and pie  
scoop down to embrace her very pregnant sister.

“You’re getting so big!” she said, putting a hand on Julia’s bump.

“I know,” Julia answered. Julia was wearing a very taut teal sweater under a gray jacket and an orange scarf.

Hillary said hello briefly to her brother-in-law and went back to setting out slices of pie. Greg led Julia slowly into the living room. Natasha immediately stood up to offer her her  
seat, which she accepted without complaint. Trey introduced Natasha, Wanda, and Coulson to Greg and Julia. Greg was thrilled to meet Hillary’s legendary boss. Julia’s baby was kicking her from the inside and she couldn’t manage more than a weak smile. Natasha got Julia a glass of water as Hillary started to pass out the pie slices to everyone. Julia started to talk about the dinner with Greg’s family with her mother, and Greg and Coulson started to get better acquainted. Natasha started to slice the pumpkin roll she had made, and as people came up to the counter for seconds on pie they also took pieces of the pumpkin roll. 

Coulson took one bite and broke into a smile.

“Natasha, that is the most heavenly pumpkin roll I’ve ever eaten,” he said.

“It’s not,” Natasha said, blushing. 

Greg got a slice of pumpkin roll and shared a bite with Julia. She wasn’t feeling terribly hungry for dessert. All she had to eat besides was a small slice of apple pie. Hillary hadn’t  
seen Julia in ages and the two of them spent the next several minutes catching up. Julia took notice of Hedwig, of course, and got a rough summary of the story of Hillary’s London adventure. Julia told Hillary, in turn, about her pregnancy and the recent happenings at her work. Maddie and Tayson ran up to touch Julia’s bump and feel the baby moving inside. Then at six-thirty, Jon and Marie announced that they were leaving. Jon got the children ready to go while Marie chatted with Julia about what she needed for her baby, offering to share some of Maddie’s baby clothes and Tayson’s old bassinet. Maddie hugged everyone goodbye, including Natasha, Coulson, and Wanda. Wanda didn’t know quite what she’d done to deserve that sort of attention but the little girl just wanted to express her innocent excitement. Jon and Marie had been gone only a few minutes when Julia and Greg decided they would leave as well.

“But you just got here!” Hillary moaned in protest.

“I know!” said Julia. “But if I’m feeling up to it I’ll come Black Friday shopping with you ladies tomorrow.”

“I’m not going to make Black Friday tomorrow, actually,” said Hillary. “Coulson needs me and the Avengers at the Tempe S.H.I.E.L.D. office first thing.”

“Owww, not on Black Friday?”

“Yes on Black Friday--Captain America insists we help him with this project. But anyway, I should be out sometime tomorrow afternoon and I was hoping I could go then and  
maybe with Mom and Natasha and Wanda, if they’re willing. But I don’t know if you’d be up to it. You don’t have to come.”

Julia glanced over at Natasha and Wanda. Natasha gave her a nod.

“I’ll let you know,” said Julia. “If I’m not too exhausted from going out in the morning.”

“I probably won’t stay out long,” said Jo.

“Well, let’s plan on it, then,” Julia told her sister. They hugged. 

Greg and Julia finally left. Jo and Cody started to collect the pie plates and forks. It was quiet without the extended members of the Tanner family. Hedwig was sleeping in the  
corner. Mark and Hillary were leaning together on the couch and holding hands. 

Natasha checked her cell phone. “Well, it’s almost eight o’clock in Indiana. We should probably call Barton up right now.”

Coulson looked at Mark. “We might be talking about classified stuff with him. Would you be okay with leaving now?”

“Aw,” Mark groaned, checking his watch, “if I have to.”

“He doesn’t need to go, boss,” said Hillary. “He knew about Emily Bridger.”

Coulson looked at them. “Oh, that’s right, you would have.”

“Yeah. I was over at her apartment hanging out when she told her roommates--” Mark broke off, yawning.

“I get it,” said Coulson. “You can stay.”

“No, I can go,” said Mark. 

Hillary stood up. “Can I walk you to your car?”

“Sure.”

Hillary and Mark left the room. 

Natasha stood up and crossed the room to the computer. 

“You can go ahead and log off from our Skype account,” said Trey, getting up to help with the dishes.

“Thank you, sir,” Natasha said. She logged the family off from Skype to get onto her own account as Hillary returned to the living room. Clint Barton was already online and she  
pressed the call button as Wanda, Coulson, and Hillary gathered around.

“Hello!” said Clint as the video feed appeared on the monitor. He was joined by his wife Laura and their two older children. 

“Auntie Wanda! You’re there, too?” said little Lila, jumping up for a better look.

“Yes, I am,” Wanda edged in.

“Hello everyone,” said Natasha. “Laura, how are you?”

“I’m all right,” Laura Barton sighed. “Still alive. My relatives have already left. I haven’t started on the dishes yet. I’m afraid I’m going to have to twist some arms to get anyone to help me.” She smirked and eyed Clint and Cooper dangerously.

Natasha laughed. “Well good luck.”

“So Agent Tanner, how are you?” Clint Barton asked Hillary.

“I’m doing all right,” said Hillary. “I had my boyfriend come over for dinner, along with these three.”

“Yeah, word on the street is you’re used to this sort of thing, having superhumans over for dinner.”

Coulson let out a little laugh.

“That was last year,” Hillary said quietly, rolling her eyes. “Well, but these three were perfectly well behaved.”

“Oh, and Bucky wasn’t?” Natasha asked.

Hillary laughed. “Well, two years in a row, though. Who knows if we might make it a tradition?”

“Auntie Nat, what are you and Auntie Wanda doing in Arizona?” asked Lila.

“We’re helping S.H.I.E.L.D. to fight Hydra, as usual,” said Natasha. “The same exact thing we did last time I came here with your daddy.”

“What’s the weather like?” Clint asked.

“Cloudy. A little cool, but not at all like autumn around here,” said Natsaha. “I kind of miss New York.”

“You’d love it up here, Nat,” said Laura.

“I know I would. I always do. And where’s baby Nate?”

“Baby Nate is taking a nap,” said Laura. “Coulson, how are you?”

“Doing good, doing good,” said Coulson. “Oh, did you hear the good news?”

“Nat texted me, yes,” said Clint, smiling.

“What good news?” asked Laura.

“I got a hold of my old girlfriend, Elaine,” said Coulson. “We’ll be getting together for Christmas.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful, Coulson,” said Laura. “Congratulations.”

“I knew you would, eventually,” said Clint. “Good for you. When do you go to see her?”

“Right before Christmas, I guess. We haven’t discussed the details yet. But we might be doing that later tonight. I’m supposed to call her after we’re done with you guys.”

Clint looked at Wanda. “Wanda, how did you like your first Thanksgiving?”

“It was okay,” said Wanda. “It was a lot of work, cooking all of that food. And now I ate too much and I’m full. But it’s good times, I guess. And Hillary and her family are nice.”

“We made a pumpkin roll,” said Natasha. “Had to repay Jo for letting us crash at her house.”

“I take it she didn’t let you scrub her house from top to bottom?” said Clint.

“She wouldn’t hear of it,” said Natasha.

“And where’s the Sorensen kid?” asked Clint.

“He’s spending Thanksgiving with his brother in D.C.,” said Hillary. “He’ll go home to California for Christmas.”

“I’m sure he will.”

“Have you got any plans for Black Friday shopping while you’re down there?” Laura asked.

“Well, as a matter of fact, S.H.I.E.L.D. needs us to help them out in the morning,” said Natasha. “We might get some time in the afternoon. What does everybody want for Christmas?”

“I want more of the Wimpy Kid books,” Cooper spoke up. “And the new Star Wars Disney Infinity toys.”

“I want a Elsa dress,” said Lila.

“I thought you already had one,” said Natasha.

“I got too big for it.”

“All right. Which books in that series do you need, Cooper?” Natasha asked, pulling out her phone to take a note. Cooper gave her the titles he needed, and he also mentioned  
that he wanted the Alcatraz books by Brandon Sanderson since a friend in his homeschool group was reading them. Laura told Wanda what clothes Lila and Cooper and the baby  
needed, with Cooper butting in to ask for a certain t-shirt. 

“And what do you want?” Natasha asked Laura.

“I don’t want anything special.”

“She wants a salad spinner,” Clint interjected.

“Honey,” Laura protested. 

“I’ll get it for you, Clint,” said Natasha. 

Laura gave a short list of other kitchen appliances that she wanted. Natasha took an interest in finding one or two of them. When Natasha asked Clint what he wanted, he said he wanted a bathrobe.

“My last one is falling apart. I’d like one I could relax in.”

“You, relax?” asked Laura.

“What, I relax occasionally!”

“He hasn’t stopped tinkering around since he came home,” Laura said to their friends.

“I said I’d stop after the bathroom.”

“Laura, you know he’s not happy unless he’s working on something,” said Natasha. “Well, we’re flying home on Saturday, and we might not have much room in our suitcases. But  
Wanda and I can go around the stores and at least see what they’ve got.”

“There’s lots of places close to here where we can go shop tomorrow,” Hillary said. “Macy’s, Old Navy, there’s a big strip mall by the freeway where Mom likes to go.”

“Well, you’re in charge, then,” said Natasha.

“So are you guys planning to go see Star Wars when it comes out?” Coulson asked the Bartons.

“I don’t know, were you?” Clint replied.

“I think Steve said he was trying to put together something for opening night,” said Natasha. “There’s only one small movie theater in Corinth, and since the Avengers moved their base there the geek population has tripled. I’ll have to talk with him about it. But what about you guys? Are you excited for Star Wars?”

“Man, I can’t wait!” Cooper exclaimed. “There’ll be stormtroopers and TIE fighters just like in the original trilogy.”

“I wanna see Rey and Princess Leia!” said Lila.

“We’re going to have a Star Wars marathon one of these days,” said Barton. “Wanda, have you seen Star Wars yet? Any of it?”

“I’ve watched it on my own,” said Wanda. “They’re okay films, I guess. I’ll go see the new one if you guys want to.”

“Well, we’ll have to take you ladies with us when we take the kids after you get here,” said Clint. 

“When are you coming for Christmas, Auntie Nat?”

“I’m not sure,” said Natasha. “But I think Cap said he was giving the Avengers and our staff a one-week break starting Monday the 21st. I’ll see if Wanda and I can come sooner,  
though.”

“Come when you can,” said Laura.

“Well, come when Cap says you can,” said Clint. “How is he?”

“He’s all right. He went to his distant relatives upstate for Thanksgiving. I guess he’s been a little moody since the Albuquerque incident--I told you about that Barton, didn’t I?”

“Yeah. That was a shame,” said Clint, nodding.

“What happened in Albuquerque, daddy?” asked Lila.

“Something sad happened,” Clint said to his daughter. “But I can’t tell you everythng because it’s S.H.I.E.L.D. stuff. And speaking of which, Auntie Nat and I had some S.H.I.E.L.D.  
stuff we wanted to talk about. Why don’t you two go help your mother clean up the dishes?”

“Aw, man,” said Cooper.

“Daddy, do we have to?” asked Lila.

“Come on, if you help me with the dishes you can have some more pie,” said Laura.

“No, I want to talk to Auntie Nat!” said Lila. “Auntie Nat, tell Mommy I don’t want to do the dishes!”

“Go help your mother with the dishes, please, Lila,” said Natasha. “Your daddy and I have grown-up stuff to talk about. I’ll Skype you again before Christmas, okay?”

“Okay,” said Lila dejectedly.

Wanda laughed a little.

“Oh, before you go, though,” said Clint. “Coulson, Nat told me you got a pet owl. Care to explain?”

“I can show you, if you want,” said Coulson. “I just happen to have her with me.” He got up and went to the corner of the room to retrieve Hedwig.

“How did he bring the owl with him?” Clint asked.

“It has to do with the recent assignment--I’ll tell you later,” said Natasha.

Coulson appeared with Hedwig on his arm, wide awake. The children ‘oohed’.

“She’s beautiful,” said Laura.

Lila jumped excitedly. “Auntie Nat, I want to hold her. Can you bring her when you come visit?”

“I’m afraid I can’t,” said Natasha. “Coulson here says that she’s going to have a secret assignment during Christmas. Maybe some other time, Hedwig can come and see you guys.”

“Awww,” said Lila.

“Did you say her name was Hedwig?” Cooper asked.

“Yes,” said Coulson, holding up his arm while Hedwig preened herself. “As a matter of fact, if you kids can keep a secret, this is the real Hedwig from the Harry Potter books. Hedwig died but Hydra brought her back to life the way they did with me.”

“Wow,” said Cooper.

Clint furrowed his brow and bit his lip.

“She’s so pretty!” said Lila. “Can you bring Hedwig to our farm to meet us?”

“No,” said Barton.

“Aw, Daddy.”

“Daaaad,” said Cooper.

“Maybe someday,” Barton shrugged.

“Well, she’s a pretty impressive owl,” said Laura. “She’d probably scare the daylights out of our cat, though.”

Hillary laughed. “No kidding. Our cat’s having a hard enough time putting up with her.”

“Okay, it’s time to go now,” said Laura. “Say goodbye to Auntie Nat.”

“Goodbye,” said Cooper sluggishly.

“Happy Thanksgiving, Auntie Nat!” said Lila. “Can you come and see us for Christmas and bring Auntie Wanda?”

“Yes, yes, we’re both coming for Christmas,” said Natasha. “Go help your mother with the dishes. Goodbye!”

“Bye!” Lila snuck in a final wave before she disappeared from the camera.

Clint laughed quietly to himself.

“They’re cute kids, Barton,” said Coulson. He had Hedwig sitting on his lap and was petting her.

“Yeah. We’re having fun.” He looked down at his computer desk, a little lost in thought. Then he looked up. “So how’s everything with the Avengers?”

“We’re doing good right now,” said Natasha.

“Just ‘good’? Not spectacular?”

“I said we’re doing just fine, Barton,” Natasha insisted.

“Oh, really?” Clint raised an eyebrow. “So what’s happened since the Albuquerque incident?”

“Well...there was a thing in London,” said Natasha, looking at Wanda. “I was on assignment in Mexico so Wanda and Hillary went. That’s where we found Hedwig, actually.”

“Tell me about Mexico. I heard something on the radio about Homeland Security--”

“Took issue with the Avengers sending Romanoff and Sorenson there, yes,” said Coulson.

Clint snorted loudly. “Sorensen?”

“He’s not a greenhorn anymore, Barton,” said Natasha.

“Is that so? Do tell me.”

Natasha summarized Hydra’s suspected activities at the Hydra base in Mexico and her and Mitch’s stakeout there. “We haven’t learned anything since then. Homeland Security doesn’t think the Avengers should get involved in certain countries without permission.”

“Red tape? How is Cap taking that?”

“Well enough, for the moment. I suppose as long as he’s calling the shots he can work with them...but we’re focusing on other problems in the meantime.”

“Uh-huh. So while you were in Mexico…”

“While they were in Mexico, Barton,” Wanda began eagerly, “a man came to the Avengers’ headquarters to ask for a favor from Captain America. Not just any man, but a person...it is hard to explain, but he knows much about time and space. He calls himself the Doctor.”

Clint spat. “The DOCTOR? Are you serious?”

“Do you know him?”

“Of course I know him! Nat, you’ve told them, haven’t you?”

Natasha gave him a look. “What happened to ‘What happens in Budapest--’”

“‘Stays in Budapest’?” Clint finished. “Apparently this guy didn’t.” He shrugged. “But it’s usually a big deal if he’s coming out to ask for help. I told you about that time with me and Emily in Australia, right?” 

“Yes, you did,” said Natasha. 

“Has he regenerated again?”

“I assume so. They’re telling me he had gray hair.”

Clint looked at Wanda. “So what did the Doctor want?”

Wanda, with some assistance from Hillary and Coulson, told the story of how they had rescued Hedwig. 

“Interesting,” Barton responded at the end. “But I can’t imagine Cap was too happy about finding another victim of Hydra’s experiments?”

“Oh no, he wasn’t,” said Wanda. “In fact he wanted to euthanize Hedwig, even after we had restored her to good health. He was mostly upset that Hydra was using her to recreate the T96 serum.”

“Got it,” said Clint. “That’s not surprising. But in the end he didn’t?”

“We managed to persuade him otherwise,” said Natasha. She was stroking Hedwig on the head.

“Wow, you changed Cap’s mind about something. That’s gotta be some kind of a record.” But Clint didn’t sound impressed, even though he said he was. “So how about this  
latest op? What were they doing in Arizona?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” said Hillary.

“We know they were working out of an abandoned mine,” said Coulson, “but it didn’t look like they were actually mining anything.”

“What kind of a mine?”

“Silver, but there were also traces of Eurekaite that they may have been interested in.”

“Eurekaite?” Clint said, alarmed.

“I take it Emily told you what that was?” asked Natasha.

“Of course she did,” said Clint. “I don’t like the thought of Hydra experimenting with that stuff. What did you do to the base?”

“We caved in the entrance,” said Wanda. “There should not be access to it--for now.”

Clint took a deep breath. “I get the feeling that if Emily knew that Hydra was after the Eurekaite then she would have wanted something a little more drastic done.”

“I can’t help thinking that myself,” said Coulson.

“So this new Hydra base, were they at all related to what you found in Mexico?”

“I dunno, could be,” said Natasha, shrugging.

“I doubt the two are related,” said Coulson. “All of these individual Hydra ops report to a single high command--I’d give anything to find out who this high command is or what they’re planning. But if it’s anything to do with eurekaite it can’t be good.”

“I should say. Weapons of mass destruction at the least. But tell me about the op.” 

Natasha and Wanda gave Clint an account of the attack on Tuesday night. Partway through their story, they heard the baby beginning to cry in the background. Clint called out to  
Laura that he could take the baby. Laura entered with baby Nate and a bottle of formula. Clint fed Nate the bottle while Natasha and Wanda continued talking. Coulson explained how he’d arranged for Hedwig to meet them in Payson. Clint was very entertained by how Hillary’s uncle had helped out the lady Avengers. He sat up baby Nate on his knee and encouraged him to smile for his aunties and Coulson.

“Well, you two are quite the adventurers,” Clint said. He yawned. “I think I’m starting to digest my dinner. I suppose it’s time for a little more pie.”

“I hope you’re not too slowed down after all that food,” said Natasha.

“I’d better not be,” said Clint. “Because this little guy is all wound up.” Natasha made a face into the webcam and baby Nate laughed loudly.

“He’s a chubby little fellow, isn’t he?” she asked.

“Naw, it’s just baby fat. He’ll outgrow it.”

“I just wish I was there to pinch those little cheeks.” She got Nate to laugh again.

Clint laughed as well. 

“So what else are you doing to keep busy these days?” asked Natasha.

“Not much. Little Nate here is an energizer bunny, he crawls everywhere, gets into everything, we keep him in a playpen on the ground floor most of the day but he likes to get out of it. Little escape artist.”

“Just like you,” Natasha smirked.

“Just like daddy.” Clint bounced the baby. Baby Nate stuck his fist into his mouth and grinned. “But I imagine he’s channeling a little bit of his namesake, too.” He looked at Wanda.

“Aw,” said Wanda. 

“Does it count if it’s a middle name?” asked Natasha.

“Absolutely.”

“What’s his middle name?” asked Hillary.

“Pietro.”

“Oh--Barton you didn’t!” Hillary exclaimed.

“No way!” said Coulson. He laughed. “Well, if he grows up to be an all-star runner I won’t be surprised.” 

Wanda and Natasha laughed.

“But anyway, yeah,” said Clint. “Little Nate’s growing like a weed. And the other kids are keeping busy. I’m helping with their homeschooling a lot. And when Laura’s fed up with  
me working on the house I’m working outside. We planted a little garden this summer, some squash and tomatoes and corn, nothing fancy. Keeping that weeded was a chore. And right now I’m trying to rebuild the fence around the property.” Clint sighed. 

“You’re getting bored out there,” said Natasha. “What’s next, hand-cutting new shingles for the roof?”

“Actually that does sound like a good idea--”

“HONEY, NO!” shouted Laura from off the screen.

“What? You don’t even know what I’m talking about!” he called back to her. Baby Nate was blowing spit bubbles and drooling onto Clint’s jeans.

“WHATEVER IT IS THE ANSWER IS NO.” 

Clint swore under his breath.

“Well, you’re cutting firewood for the winter, right?” asked Natasha.

“Oh, yeah, lots of it,” said Clint, nodding. “I’m out in the woods on the weekends, maybe two, three hours at a time. I usually come back with the truck bed full.”

“And Cooper and Lila? Are you taking them out with you?”

“Sometimes, when I can get them away. Cooper’s getting addicted to his video games and Lila likes watching him play. I’m like, come on, kids, I got you a seven-acre farm in the  
middle of nowhere with a big yard and lots of trees and you don’t even want to go outside?”

“They’re you to a T,” said Natasha, shaking her head.

Clint smirked. “Maybe I should invite Rogers to come down and cut up some wood for me. That pile he made back in May got us through about half the summer.”

“Well you don’t use that much during the warm weather?”

“No. Anyway, it’s been great talking to you guys. I look forward to seeing you and Wanda down here for Christmas, Natasha.”

“Thanks, Barton. We’ll let you know what our plans are.”

“And stay in touch with me. I wanna know what’s happening with Hydra and the Avengers. Coulson, you can call me up every once in a while.”

“I’ll be sure to do that,” said Coulson. “Happy Thanksgiving.”

“You too,” said Barton. “And good luck with your cellist.”

“Bye,” said Natasha.

“Bye.” 

They hung up on Clint. 

“All right, it’s my turn,” said Coulson, straightening up and centering his chair in front of the computer.

Hillary got up to leave and Wanda and Natasha looked ready to walk away. “Have fun, boss,” Hillary said, patting him on the back.

“No, no, stay, I’ll want to introduce you three,” Coulson said.

“Come on, I got stuff to do,” said Hillary.

“No, you don’t. This is important. I’ve told Elaine a lot about you guys.” Coulson logged out of Natasha’s Skype account and entered his own. 

Elaine Merrigan wore her curly brown hair in a ponytail away from her oblong face. She had prominent cheekbones and green eyes. That night she was wearing a black sleeveless blouse and a gold necklace. 

“Hello, Elaine.”

“Hello there, Phil,” said Elaine. “Good evening. Happy Thanksgiving.”

“Happy Thanksgiving to you, too,” said Coulson. “How was yours?”

“Oh, it was great. Dinner at my aunt’s house, as usual. She keeps asking me why I’m still single.”

“Did you tell her about us?”

“I didn’t, actually.”

“Well, you should introduce me while I’m up there.”

“I told her it was complicated.”

“Well that’s...accurate.”

Elaine laughed. “I see you have friends.”

“Yes. Elaine, allow me to introduce you. This is Hillary Tanner, my assistant.”

“Hi,” said Hillary.

“And of course you’ve met Hedwig. And this here is Natasha and Wanda--Black Widow and Scarlet Witch from the Avengers.”

“The Avengers, of course,” said Elaine, nodding eagerly. “How do you do?”

“So you’re the cellist everyone talked about?” Natasha said.

Eliane laughed. “Yes, I’m that cellist. Coulson told me about how the Avengers remembered that we were dating.” 

“Well, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you, even if it isn’t in person,” said Natasha.

“I’m not one of the original Avengers,” Wanda said.

“Phil explained to me, yes,” said Elaine. “But I’ve been watching the news. Your new Avengers team is spectacular--better than the first, I should say.”

“Not to let Tony Stark hear that,” Natasha whispered to Wanda while Coulson made some generic comments to Elaine about working with the Avengers. 

Elaine asked Wanda about their trip to London earlier in the month. Other than that she didn’t have much to say to them. Hillary had to dismiss herself, and Natasha and Wanda took their leave as well. Wanda went to go pull off Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire from the Tanner family’s bookshelf. 


	9. Chapter 9

“So when are you coming up here?” Elaine asked Coulson.

“December twenty-first,” he said. “I’m counting the days.”

“I am, too.”

Coulson couldn’t wait to be with his girlfriend in person again, but in the meantime Skype was the next best thing. He told Elaine about the dinner with the Tanners and how he had spent Easter with them earlier that year. Elaine talked about her different friends in the Portland Symphony and how she hung out with them on the weekends when she had nothing better to do. She was planning to go Black Friday shopping with the concert mistress. Wanda sat on the couch and fully intended to start reading, but she couldn’t take her eyes off Coulson as he skyped with his girlfriend. It was like he was coming back to life, and in a sense he was. And it was incredible to watch. 

He let Hedwig go, and she flew over to the back of the couch behind Wanda. She hooted at Wanda and looked down at the heavy book in her hands.

“Yes, I am going to read it,” said Wanda. “I suppose you know what this is, don’t you?”

Coulson and his cellist finally hung up. He said goodnight to the Tanners and went back to his hotel. And, wondering if owls could read, Wanda started reading Goblet of Fire.

Coulson came by to pick up Natasha, Wanda, and Hillary at six the following morning. Jo Tanner had already left to go Black Friday shopping. Hillary was yawning as they got into the car. She wasn’t very rested.

“Did you get any sleep last night?” Natasha asked her.

Hillary blinked at her with watery eyes. “I swear I did. But I was up late texting Mark.”

“How late?”

It had been pretty late, actually. Wanda had been up until almost midnight reading Harry Potter and she had seen Hillary get up to use the bathroom. But she didn’t say anything. 

They went directly to the state capitol complex in Phoenix. In a secure building they interrogated fifteen of the people they had captured in Payson on Tuesday. Some of the interviews went a little longer than others. None of the Hydra personnel identified themselves as leaders beyond “first lieutenant” or “second lieutenant”. The First Lieutenant that was in charge had little information to give. The captured Hydra agents were just guards, not scientists or geologists or engineers. They were not assigned to mine or process the Eurekaite. One of the rank-and-file guards let slip that they were supposed to enlarge the “facility” within the mine and had not yet begun construction. And of course, no one had any clues to offer about the “high command” of Hydra. This group of Hydra personnel, the First Lieutenant said, had received their orders from a commander working in Tijuana, Mexico--and he had only been sending orders down the pipeline.

“And of course we can’t go to Mexico anymore,” said Coulson bitterly as he led Hillary, Wanda, and Natasha down the hallway as they left. “She may have just been lying to keep us from looking for them.”

“She was telling the truth,” said Wanda. They went down the hallway stairs to the lower level of the building. 

“Couldn’t we spy on Hydra?” asked Natasha. “I mean, get somebody to work on the inside? They would have an easier time finding out what they’re really up to.”

“Do you really think Steve would let you?” Coulson asked, looking at her.

Wanda knew that Natasha had long considered asking Steve this--and hadn’t because she already knew the answer.

“I’m just saying hypothetically,” said Natasha, folding her arms. “It would cause a lot less damage than trying to track down every one of their cells and blowing them up every time.”

“Well, you know we can’t do it any other way,” said Coulson. “Cap doesn’t trust anyone to be a double agent--”

“He trusts me--”

“I wasn’t saying he doesn’t trust you. And I’m not saying I don’t trust you, either. But from what Emily Bridger understood about the depth of Hydra’s...evil, she told me that Hydra corrupts from the inside the way it does from the outside. This is not the kind of enemy you can get inside of to destroy from within. I think Steve’s making the right call on this. He knows Hydra.”

“Or he thinks he does,” said Natasha.

Coulson looked at her. “Where did that come from?”

“Well, not to bring up a sore subject,” Natasha began, “but Emily is dead.”

“Emily knew what she was talking about,” said Coulson.

“Just because she was a--”

“That’s enough, both of you,” Hillary spoke up. They both eyed her suspiciously. “This was starting to get personal. Look, we’re all tired, why don’t we go home and take a nap?”

“What about lunch?” asked Wanda.

“We can do lunch later. Boss, I think my mom and I wanted to take these girls shopping this afternoon. Permission to proceed?”

“I’m not their commander,” said Coulson.

“But you’re mine.”

Coulson laughed. “Go ahead. I suppose I’ll go back to the hotel and catch a few z’s. You girls can go have fun.”

 

They drove back to Hillary’s house. Coulson dropped them off. Hillary had a diet coke and Natasha didn’t feel tired, but Wanda did shut her eyes for a few minutes and laid down on the couch.

Jo came back into the house carrying full plastic bags over both her arms and she set them on the table. Hillary came to help her disentangle herself.

“Well, Mom, do you feel up to taking these girls with me or do you need a break?”

“Just a short break and something to eat,” said Jo pleasantly. “I’m all wound up and ready to go.”

“So how was shopping with your sisters?”

“It was fine. Julia didn’t make it, sadly. She’s not feeling good today and she said to tell you sorry. But I’ve made a good dent in my Christmas shopping. How was interrogating Hydra?”

“Um...less fine.” Hillary shrugged. 

Jo went to her room for a few minutes. When she came out, she, Hillary, Natasha, and Wanda ate some Thanksgiving leftovers, and after briefly freshening up they got in Hillary’s   
car and drove to a nearby shopping center.

“Do you girls have any preference for where to go? Any particular stores?”

Natasha shrugged. “No, not really.”

“Do they have any of the same stores here that they have in New York?” asked Wanda.

“Most likely, but they’re not as nice,” Natasha answered her.

“But they’re probably not as expensive,” said Hillary. “There’s a shopping center out here, it’s got Hobby Lobby and Old Navy, and a short drive away there’s J.C. Penny’s. Those are the ones Mom still needs to hit up so we can tag along. Sound good?”

“Sounds good to me,” said Wanda, shrugging.

“We’ll go from there,” said Natasha.

Hillary took a breath and continued driving. The main streets were considerably crowded that afternoon and she had to take it slow.

“So it sounds like Julia’s been having a rough pregnancy,” she commented to her mother.

“Yeah. She has. But sometimes the first pregnancy is rough. I remember when I was pregnant with Mike. I had morning sickness all three trimesters. And poor Susan nearly lost Oliver twice. It’s not fun.”

“Yeah. I suppose getting pregnant is one thing and staying pregnant another.”

“Jo?” Wanda spoke up.

“Yes, Wanda?”

“Did you bring any coupons with you for these stores?”

“Just a paper one for Hobby Lobby,” said Jo. “30% off total purchase. I already went to J.C. Penny’s this morning and used up my coupons for that. But I can get a few more off my smartphone.”

“I’m going to look up some coupons, too,” said Natasha, pressing the screen on her phone. “We could share.”

“Sounds excellent.”

“So what do we need for the grandkids this year?” Hillary asked her mother. While Jo was elaborating on what Julia and Marie and Susan wanted for their children, Natasha was   
looking up electronic coupons. She showed Wanda how to do it as well on her phone. Wanda was grateful for the distraction: Jo’s conversation with Hillary about pregnancies in   
the family had unsettled Natasha.

The parking lot in front of the strip mall off Mackenzie Road was congested. Hillary moved the car at a snail’s pace, and they wandered up and down the aisles of parking spots in search of a spot for nearly ten minutes.

Natasha glared out her window impatiently. 

They came to a stop near the entrance to Hobby Lobby close to a car that was backing out. Another vehicle was waiting in front of them, looking like it was going to continue to roll forward but the chances were very good that it was waiting to pounce on the soon-to-be-vacated spot.

“Don’t take that spot,” said Hillary dangerously. “Don’t take it.” The car ahead of them started to angle into the spot. “Don’t do it, don’t do it.”

“He won’t,” said Wanda, raising her hand.

“Wanda, don’t!” said Natasha, grabbing her wrist, but not before a burst of red energy came out of her hand.

“Dangit, Wanda!” said Hillary. The car in front of them pulled out of the spot it had been about to take and returned to the line of cars searching for a place to park.

“What did she do?”

“She used her powers to steal a parking spot,” Hillary grumbled. And by the looks of things, the driver had cut in front of another car going a different direction and gotten   
honked at. Wanda cringed. She hadn’t meant for that to happen. 

“I was just trying to help,” said Wanda feebly.

“Go ahead and just take the spot, Hillary,” said Jo. Hillary pulled forward and parked. Everyone kind of exhaled as if to brush the incident aside. Wanda looked at Natasha, expecting her to vent her angry thoughts, but she remained silent and didn’t look at her.

It was a nice day, cool and cloudy but not cold. They walked into Hobby Lobby in a small clump, Wanda and Natasha not speaking to each other and Jo and Hillary talking stiffly about what they wanted to look for. Wanda wanted Natasha to know that she was sorry for using her powers but Natasha didn’t want to hear about it. 

The mood changed when they walked through the front door of the store, inhaling the scent of home decor and potpourri and hearing Christmas music over the store's speakers.

Jo grabbed a shopping cart from near the front entrance. “You two can go ahead and take your own cart. You don’t have to follow us.”

“No, it’s fine, Mrs. Tanner,” said Natasha. “We’re not going to be getting much. We don’t mind following.” Natasha had relaxed considerably once they were indoors. 

But Natasha and Wanda fell behind Hillary and her mother as they approached the aisle display of Christmas crafts.

“Hey, Wanda, I’ve been meaning to ask,” Natasha said when the Tanners were out of earshot, “but did you want to get a Christmas tree for our apartment?”

“Oh, why yes,” said Wanda. “That would be lovely.”

“Okay. It probably won’t be a very big one,” said Natasha, throwing her hair back over her shoulders (it was getting pretty long now). “Would you prefer a live tree or a fake one?”

“As opposed to a dead one?” She and Natasha both giggled. “I do not know. I suppose we could get a fake one, and then one of us could keep it for later on...do you ever wonder how long we’re going to be roommates?”

“I don’t see why there has to be an end in sight.”

“Well, let’s see how much the artificial trees cost, at least,” Wanda suggested. 

“True,” said Natasha. “And if we find one today we can get it shipped to the apartment.”

“And ornaments? What were you thinking for the decoration? Like the color scheme, a general theme?”

“Well...I want it to look like us,” said Natasha. “You know, with things that you like and some things that I like. But we need a color scheme.”

“All right. What colors?”

“Definitely red. For you.”

“Ha ha. What will be your color?”

Natasha thought for a moment. “Well...nobody puts black on a Christmas tree, do they?” Hillary and Jo walked slowly around the shelves and surveyed the designer ornaments.

“Hm, no, they don’t. How about gold?”

“Gold?”

“Yes...well...red and gold go good together, don’t they?”

“But why am I gold?”

“Well, since joining the Avengers I’ve discovered that you have...well, a heart of gold.”

Natasha blushed. “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about me. But no, even you with all of your psychic powers should know that I’m not good enough for gold.”

“Ah, Natasha,” said Wanda. “Stop being so hard on yourself.”

Natasha turned to look at some rustic-themed ornaments covered with twine and sacking, mainly shaped like birds, baubles, and reindeer. She and Wanda looked at the ornaments, pulling them off the racks by the tags and strings for a closer look. They then moved further down the row to where Jo and Hillary were looking at some metallic ornaments in gold and silver and different colors. Wanda held out a string of gold beads, proffering them to Natasha for their prospective tree. Natasha smiled and shook her head.

Then Wanda noticed that Natasha was looking at the silver set of ornaments, drawn to a glittering bird trimmed with white faux feathers.

“I know,” Wanda spoke up when Hillary and Jo turned and left. “We could do red and silver. That would be lovely.”

Natasha looked at Wanda. “You think so?”

“Oh, yes.”

“All right, then. Red and silver it is.” Natasha pulled off the bird. “That should be small enough to take back with us.”

In the next aisle were more specialty ornaments and collectibles, merely household objects and fashion accessories in miniature and even children’s characters with ornament hooks on them. 

Several racks of tiny jeweled shoes caught Wanda’s eye. “Oh, Natasha, look!” There was a pair of red ones with gold accents. And from the hook next to it she pulled off a pair of clear crystal heels with black accents to show Natasha.

“What do you think?”

Natasha gave her a broad smile. “It’s perfect.”

“Let’s take them both.”

They showed their finds to Jo and Hillary, who both lavished compliments on the ornaments as they placed them in the shopping cart. But they both felt like they could look for more ornaments later. They went through a section selling Christmas trees. There were only two that were small enough for them to consider, a half-sized one and a three-quarter sized one. The full-sized trees were each over a hundred dollars. The half-sized one was at seventy dollars and the three-quarter was eighty. Natasha and Wanda both felt that they would keep looking at other stores when they back to New York.

“Christmas trees are not cheap,” said Jo as she pushed the cart away.

“If you wanted, wait until after the holidays when they’re on sale,” said Hillary. “I guarantee you’ll get a deal then.”

Natasha laughed. 

“So will the red and silver ornaments just be for this year?” asked Wanda. 

“Well...it depends on what we want to do next year. We might go green.”

“Green, on a Christmas tree?”

Natasha shrugged. “The Christmas decorating culture is so weird.”

The aisle next to the Christmas Trees had special decorative foliage, wreaths, and velvet bows. In particular, Wanda noticed a display of red flowers with striking broad, red petals.

“What are these?” she asked, handling a bunch.

“These are poinsettias,” Hillary explained. “They only grow red in the wild, usually. But if you fancy there’s some silver and white ones.”

“They’re so pretty,” said Wanda. “Natasha?”

Natasha had been looking at a twig wreath. “What?”

“Do you think these would look nice on our tree?”

“Hm, no. How about when we get back we get a vase of them for the apartment?”

“Okay.” Wanda let her fingers linger on the velvet petals. She followed the other three across the store but went slowly, letting her eyes take in the displays and the abundance of   
beautiful Christmas items. Hillary and Jo stocked up on wrapping paper and tissue. Natasha examined various gift bags with cute designs. Then they went to the arts and crafts   
section, Natasha lingering behind while Wanda walked next to the cart and talked to Hillary. Jo picked out art kits and drawing pads for her older grandchildren. It was nearly three in the afternoon but the lines were incredibly long. Natasha and Wanda and Hillary amused themselves by looking at the display racks between the checkstands at jewelry and fridge magnets. Hillary even picked out a few small toys to be presents for her nieces and nephews.

Wanda’s feet were sore by the time the four of them left Hobby Lobby. They were enlisted to help carry the tall tubes of wrapping paper out of the store to the car. 

A short ride (or what should have been a short ride) through the parking lot later they arrived at J.C. Penny. They did find an empty parking space at the very rear of the parking lot. The last thing Wanda wanted to do was to walk all the way into the store but it was a dumb idea to use her powers to hover and she was too tired to risk it anyway. 

When they entered J.C. Penny, Natasha said she wanted to go to the luggage section. They agreed to meet Jo and Hillary in the baby clothes department. Natasha and Wanda decided that Natasha would go ahead and get a new suitcase while Wanda would keep the one Coulson had brought their things in. Natasha got a small rolling suitcase that would be light and small enough to carry on an airplane.

“It’ll be good to have an extra suitcase for emergencies anyway,” said Natasha. “When you’re a spy, you have to travel a lot. And you might lose a few things on the way.”

“And you haven’t traveled as much when you’ve been an Avenger?” Wanda asked.

“Surprisingly, no.”

“I’ve never traveled so much in my life as I have in the last seven months,” said Wanda. “I’d been to other parts of East Europe but never further, not before Ultron came.”

They walked away from the luggage section, Natasha carrying her new suitcase.

“Personal question,” asked Natasha. “Do you think about Ultron? Like, do you miss him?”

“No,” said Wanda, shrugging. “He tried to befriend Pietro and I. But we didn’t really trust him. I told myself that it was necessary to work with him to--to stop the Avengers, even if I didn’t like it. I wasn’t really attached to him. He liked us, sure. But he always made me uncomfortable. And after we realized what he was really doing, it wasn’t really worth thinking about him. I mean would you--?”

“I get it,” said Natasha. “He used you.”

Wanda shook her head. “He thought I was some kind of a goddess, because of my abilities. He never even saw my human side. But he hated humanity period. So why should he have?”

Natasha was silent for a few moments. Then she said, “So has Tony Stark redeemed himself, in your eyes?”

“Hm?”

“Well, I mean to say, do you think better of him? Now that you’ve gotten to know him better?”

“Well…” Wanda wasn’t sure how to respond. She knew that Natasha thought highly of Stark, even though he peeved her quite a bit. “I guess so. I appreciate that he helped take care of me, after what happened in Sokovia. He is a good man, I guess, one who tries his best--after all, that was why he built Ultron, wasn’t it?”

“M-hmm.”

“So...he hasn’t given me a reason to dislike him, since knowing him. And he’s been a big help with the New Avengers. But don’t you think it’s odd that we haven’t heard from   
Tony that much since August?”

“I’m sure he’s found other things to do,” Natasha shrugged.

Wanda knew that Natasha knew what Tony was really up to. And Wanda had heard rumors, too, about Tony’s most recent interest. It made her worried. Natasha was worried, too.

“Never mind,” said Wanda.

She didn’t like talking about Ultron that much. She was ashamed of what she had done for Ultron. And thinking of Ultron made her think of her brother. 

They had to walk through the menswear section to get to the children’s clothing section. Hillary and Jo were there, Jo’s cart loaded up with shirts and pants and dresses. She showed the two Lady Avengers the matching dresses she had picked out for Maddie and Linsey, black velvet tops with spangled green skirts and wide green sashes. 

“Oh, they’re adorable,” said Natasha. She glanced at the rack that Jo had picked them from.

“Thinking you’d like one for Lila?” Wanda asked her aside.

Natasha sighed. “The Bartons don’t like me buying dress clothes for their children. They never go out in public enough.”

“That’s too bad,” said Wanda.

“Yeah--it’s how Clint keeps a low profile. Cooper complains that he doesn’t have a life. Lila only has one or two friends in her homeschool group.”

“That must be why they like having company so much.”

“Laura likes to have company, occasionally,” said Natasha as they walked towards the baby clothes. “But Clint doesn’t like having company--except for me.” Natasha also gave Wanda a look that said it was significant that Clint had allowed Wanda to come visit them at all.

Natasha and Wanda each picked out new onesies for baby Nate--Natasha got him a striped yellow and blue one with a pair of baby rattles embroidered on the pocket as an insignia; Wanda got him a holiday-themed red onesie with ‘Santa’s little helper’ printed on the bottom flap.

“That has a butt flap, I’m impressed,” said Natasha.

Hillary had gone over to the shoe section and Natasha and Wanda went to join her. Wanda had been thinking of buying a new pair of dress boots but found none she liked.   
Natasha, on the other hand, found two new pairs of dress shoes.

They next followed Jo to the home and kitchen section.

“So what did Laura say she wanted for Christmas?” Wanda asked Natasha.

“A nut chopper and a salad spinner,” said Natasha. 

“Nut chopper, where would we find one of those?” Wanda asked, looking around.

“What are you guys looking for?” asked Hillary. Natasha told her. Hillary walked over to the next aisle of the section. “Hey, I found you a nut chopper!” She held up a nut chopper   
that was on display, a glass vessel with a metal handle that moved the blades up and down from the outside. Natasha and Wanda came over to look at Hillary’s find. Natasha examined the model and the price and took one that was in a box. On the next display stand was a selection of salad spinners from different brands. Wanda and Hillary had fun spinning the different lids and the whirring noises that came from inside the devices. Natasha was pleased with a certain model, but decided it would be too large to take on the plane.

“We can order one online,” Natasha commented as they left the section.

Adjacent to the kitchen furnishings department were the children’s toys, and where these two sections converged was a display of Christmas items--a single decorated tree and two racks of ornaments. Wanda tried out a wind-up musical snow globe while Hillary, Jo, and Natasha looked at the other ornaments for sale, all very expensive and not a few of them collectibles from certain brands. It wasn’t quite the selection that Hobby Lobby had. Natasha picked up a few of the ornaments and examined them.

“I’m going to get this one for Laura,” she said to Wanda, holding it out. It was a glass bauble that bulged on top but narrowed towards the bottom in graceful curves, red and covered with glittery gold tracery. “What do you think?”

“It’s wonderful,” said Wanda.

“I get an ornament every year for Laura,” said Natasha. 

“Oh? Should I get her one, too?”

“If you like. The ornaments here are kind of expensive. We could go back to Hobby Lobby--”

“When are you sending yours?”

“After we get back to Corinth.”

“Oh. I suppose I can wait.” They walked away from the ornament display.

“Do you spend Christmas with the Bartons every year?”

“No, not every year. I’ve done it twice before.”

“Where do you go?”

“Well, when I worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. I usually took assignments over the holidays. But it’ll be nice to be spending Christmas with other people this year, I guess.”

“Why, where were you last year?”

“I was in Russia.” Her abrupt silence meant that what she was doing there was not Wanda’s business. But that was Nat: she’d often be gone for days at a time and reappear out of nowhere, and when they weren’t at work at the Avengers’ facility she was rarely at home, but what she was out doing Wanda didn’t have a clue. 

Jo and Hillary decided to head to checkout. Natasha wanted to go look at bathrobes for Clint, so she and Wanda went back to the men’s section. There was an abundance of plush robes on sale. Natasha liked a plaid blue and green one. Wanda liked a solid navy. But the bathrobes were best left until after they got back to Corinth.

Old Navy was the next store on the block to J.C. Penny’s, and it was just as crowded. Wanda and Natasha decided to go look at casual clothes for the Barton children. On their way in, one of the first things they saw on display was an elaborate selection of peacoats. 

“Well, aren’t these cute?” said Natasha, smiling over a dark gray plaid one. 

“You know, it’s probably going to be cold when we land in Corinth, Natasha. And they didn’t send me a coat.”

“Oh yeah? How much are these?”

Wanda looked at the price tag on a bright red one with black buttons. “Thirty-five dollars.”

Natasha whistled. “That’s amazing. Go for it.”

Wanda plucked the coat from the rack and placed it in their shopping cart. They decided to walk by the misses’ clothes section on their way to the children’s department at the back of the store. A wooly cap caught Wanda’s eye and she stowed it in the cart with the coat.

Arriving at their destination, they started looking at shirts and pants for the Barton children.

“What sizes are they?” Wanda asked as she looked through a rack of girls’ shirts. 

“I don’t recall,” said Natasha. “I think they’ve gotten bigger since the last time I saw them--it seems like they do every time.” She got out her phone to text Laura. Laura sent back the numbers within a few minutes.

“You do a lot of shopping for the Bartons, don’t you?”

Natasha shrugged and smiled. “Laura orders most of their clothes online. But yeah, I don’t mind. When I know I’m going to be in town I usually bring a few things Laura needs--which translates to if I’m spending Christmas there I’m getting stuff for the Bartons on Black Friday.” She picked out a long-sleeved shirt for Lila. Later she picked up a package of socks for each of the older Barton children.

“Socks? For Christmas?”

“Their mother will give them separately.”

They browsed through they boys’ section and got a shirt each for Cooper. Then they went to the long checkout line. Jo and Hillary met them at the front of the store.

“Oh, I think my second wind just ran out,” said Jo as the four of them carried their bags out of the store.

“Ugh,” said Hillary. “This calls for a diet coke.” 

Jo looked at Natasha and Wanda. “So how are you ladies doing? Anywhere else you need to go?”

“Nope,” said Natasha.

“I think we’re good,” said Wanda. 

“So Hillary,” Wanda spoke up as they walked to their car, “I’ve been wondering what I could get Coulson for Christmas--something for him and Hedwig. I mean, he needs a lot of equipment and stuff for a pet owl, doesn’t he?”

“Well, I assume he has most of it already,” said Hillary. “I could text him and find out if there’s anything he’s lacking. I assume he’d be just fine with us getting him more owl food and treats. Hedwig does hunt a lot but Coulson likes to be sure. And owl treats were in the Harry Potter books, anyway, so they’re a nice touch.”

“Hm, well, he does have that glove,” said Natasha. “Would he like a second one, so he could switch it out?”

Hillary shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Does he have water and food dishes for her?” asked Wanda.

“He does, but I think they were kind of makeshift, actually.”

“Well, is there anything else he says he’d like for Christmas?”

Hillary sniffed. “I wouldn’t know from the top of my head. But I’ll let you know.”

They got to Hillary’s car and opened the trunk. It was barely full.

“When I took the suburban this morning,” said Jo, “I had everyone carpool with me. By the time we were finished we’d folded the back seat down and there was hardly room to sit.”

Natasha and Wanda both laughed.

“Oh,” said Hillary as they got into their seats, “we need to have some Christmas music!”

“I agree,” said Jo.

Hillary looked back at Natasha and Wanda. “Have you guys ever listened to the Piano Guys?”

“No, who are they?” asked Wanda.

Natasha shrugged. “They’re all right.”

Hillary snorted as she pulled up the music app on her phone. “I forgot--Coulson says it takes a lot to impress you with pop culture stuff.”

“I have my reasons.”

Hillary plugged in a USB cord connecting her phone to the dash of her car. She hit play as soon as the engine was turned on. There was a single note from a cello, and then a beautiful twinkling melody began to play on the higher notes of a piano. More piano parts chimed in to play “Angels We Have Heard on High.” Wanda listened with her mouth half-open.

“Who are these people?”

“The Piano Guys,” said Hillary. “They’re amazing. One guy with a cello, another with a piano. But for this piece they had like five guys playing on a single piano--and not just the keyboard but the inside strings and the lower keys. Listen.” Wanda listened for another minute. Natasha was checking her phone. 

“And the Piano Guys do all sorts of music,” said Hillary, pop songs, show tunes, movie music--but their Christmas album is amazing.”

“I like what I’m hearing so far,” said Wanda.

“We should show her their music videos when we get home,” said Jo.

“Affirmative,” said Hillary.

Wanda enjoyed the selections from the Piano Guys Christmas album that they listened to on the short drive home--in fact she liked them much better than the pop music they had heard in the stores. She had the tune of “Angels” stuck in her head when they got back to the Tanners’ house. They had an early dinner of more Thanksgiving leftovers. Natasha was texting Coulson back and forth. She got a Christmas wish list out of him, and she and Wanda decided to wait until they got back home to tackle it. Hillary volunteered to get a few items as well.

“Coulson also says we’re flying home first thing tomorrow morning,” Natasha informed them. “You, me and Hillary.”

Hillary groaned.

“What time is your flight?” asked Cody, who had come home from work.

“Six in the morning.”

Hillary groaned louder.

“Well that sucks,” said Cody.

“It’s a pity you have to leave us so soon,” said Jo. “We’ve really enjoyed having you girls here.”

Natasha gave her a wan smile. “Your hospitality has been stupendous, Jo.”

“You’re more than welcome to come back and visit, you know,” said Trey from the kitchen counter. “And it’s only a short ride from the airport. We could pick you up, even.”

“We could take you up on that,” said Wanda.

“I imagine you will,” said Hillary. “The situation with Hydra here in Arizona is far from over.”

“That’s comforting,” said Natasha.

Hillary leaned back in the armchair and sighed. “So if it takes at least an hour to go through security and get bags checked we have to be there by at least four-thirty in the   
morning. Which means we have to get up at around three. Perfect.” She rubbed her eyelids. Then she looked at Natasha and Wanda. “S.H.I.E.L.D. has special security passes for flying commercial airlines. Did Steve get you Avengers anything like that?”

“He hasn’t,” said Natasha irritably.

“Actually, I’ve never flown on a commercial airplane before, now that I think of it,” said Wanda. “What should I expect?”

“Lame snacks on the plane, but they serve beverages, thank goodness. But all the cheap flights are usually at dark o’clock in the morning which means everyone will be there. Security is just a hassle because everyone makes it one. But you have to take off your shoes and your belts and your coats and everything in your pockets and you gotta put your laptop through separate--it’s a nightmare. That’s why I love working for S.H.I.E.L.D. so much, when I’m on official business I can go through the pilot’s security lane and get through much faster.” 

Natasha sent Coulson another text asking when he wanted to meet in the morning. He said he would pick them up at three-thirty in the morning, since he had to return the rental car at four. Natasha also told them that Coulson had already sent Hedwig back east and she would meet him and Hillary in D.C.

Jo let Natasha go to her and Trey’s room to take a nap for the afternoon. Wanda, however, wanted to see the Piano Guys videos like Hillary had promised. They watched a couple of the Christmas ones, including the one for ‘Angels,” but the majority of their selections were for their themed performances.

“Have you seen the Star Wars movies?” Hillary asked Wanda when she pulled up ‘Cello Wars.’

“Yes, they’re all right. I wasn’t too impressed with the acting in the prequels.”

“A lot of people aren’t. And do you have plans for the new movie?” asked Hillary.

Wanda shrugged. “I don’t know. I suppose Natasha and I will go watch it, maybe see it with Steve and the other guys.”

The ‘Cello Wars’ video was funny. After having their fill of the Piano Guys Wanda curled up on the couch to continue reading Harry Potter while Hillary went to the piano to make her own music, playing a few Christmas hymns and carols. Wanda had to put down her book to listen a few times, including when Hillary was playing “What Child is This?”

And she noticed that Hillary seemed sad. She was thinking about Bucky. Wanda wondered if she could say something to reassure her--but as far as Bucky Barnes was concerned, if anyone had anything hopeful to say about him they were all empty words at this point. Natasha came out of Trey and Jo’s room to sleep on the couch, and she and Wanda and Hillary went to bed early.

 

It didn’t feel like a dream this time. She was there, she could feel the dark shadows pressing around her, smell the dirt and the musty air and the sweat.

And she wasn’t alone.

She was standing in a wide doorway, the door to a mechanic’s workshop, perhaps. In the light, she could see three people, all men. Two of them were standing in front of her, looking down at the third, who was hunched on the floor leaning against some kind of a machine. His arm appeared to be stuck, but in the dim lighting she couldn’t see very well.   
She could hear the echo of the third man’s heavy breathing from across the room. She could feel his pain, physical and emotional. He looked up at the other two men, but he had long hair over his eyes and his face was shadowed. The more Wanda looked at him, the more she felt fear, the more she began to feel her heart racing. 

The other two men stared at the third. They were both weary as if from a fight. They were both in shock, somehow, at the sight of this person.

The two men standing leaned close together.

“This would’ve been a lot easier a week ago,” said one of them. She was surprised and confused by how familiar this voice sounded. Her mind raced. She knew that voice somewhere--

“What if we told Tony--” the other man said. It was Steve. The other man had to be Sam Wilson. But who was the third?

“He’d never believe us.”

“But what if--”

“I’m not sure the Accords would even let him help,” said Sam.

“So we’re on our own?” asked Steve.

“Not exactly,” said Sam. “I know someone.”

Her vision rushed past Steve and Sam and she saw more clearly the man trapped in the machine. It was the Winter Soldier.


	10. Chapter 10

She rolled off the couch, still wrapped in her sheets. If anything, she was sweating worse than when she had woken from her dream on Monday.

Looking up from the floor, she saw the picture frame on the piano, the face of the subject obscured the way it had been in the dream right up until the very end.

She got up and used her powers to remotely activate the kitchen light. She poured herself a glass of water from the tank. Then she went to the piano, leaving the kitchen light on, and had another good look at that photograph.

It was ten minutes to three in the morning. If she was lucky, she would have slept about five hours. But she hardly felt rested.

She went to the bathroom. Still feeling sweaty, and wanting to shake off the cold, sick feeling the dream had given her, Wanda took a shower.

When she got out, dressed in a blouse and jeans, Hillary was coming out of her room, rubbing her eyes.

“You’re up early,” said Hillary. The foremost thing on Hillary's mind was finding a bottle of diet coke as soon as possible.

“Hillary, can we talk? Alone?”

“Yes, what’s the matter?”

“I just figured...you have the right to know. Apart from Steve, you knew him best.”

“Knew who best? Bucky?”

“Listen.”

Hillary came wide awake as she listened to Wanda tell her about the dream. When Wanda was finished, Hillary pursed her lips.

“What do you think you just saw?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, was it a vision, something about the future maybe, or something that’s happening right now?”

“I don’t know,” said Wanda. “And I don’t have any way of telling.”

“Do you have these kind of dreams often? I mean, for someone with your powers--”

“I don’t normally have dreams like this,” said Wanda. “And I can’t predict the future. My powers don’t do that--at least, I think they don’t.”

“You should look into that, maybe,” said Hillary. 

“But what do we do about it in the meantime?”

Hillary sighed. “I guess we can just hope that it’s nothing. Wait and see.” She shrugged.

“But what about Steve? Should we tell him? He has the right to know, doesn’t he?”

“Yes. I have it on good authority from someone who works at the Avengers’ base that the last time someone didn’t tell him something about Bucky he nearly killed someone. But I dunno, Wanda, I kind of got a bad feeling about this. I doubt it’s something that’s happening at this moment. If it’s in the future, then Steve will do everything in his power to prevent it from happening. Or it could happen whether or not we told him. Steve is trying to focus on the Avengers right now. The Winter Soldier is on the wanted lists of several intelligence agencies and at least fifty countries. If Steve decides to go after him it could really mess things up. I’m not saying don’t do it. I’m saying we should be careful. Wait and see. If something comes up, either you or I will tell him. Can I use the bathroom now?”

“Oh, sorry, go ahead.”

“It’s all right.”

Natasha was already stirring on her couch. She had heard Hillary and Wanda talking but knew better than to ask what it was about. Wanda did some last-minute packing and ate a roll while Natasha and Hillary finished getting ready. Finally all three of them were ready to go. Coulson was on his way to pick them up, but as Wanda and Natasha headed towards the kitchen door with their luggage, Hillary, wearing her coat and scarf, went to the piano for a good look at the picture of Bucky and wondered where he was and if he was okay. Natasha had to call to her to get her attention when Coulson finally arrived.

 

It was a chilly morning, and Wanda was very glad to have her new coat and hat. Coulson had no trouble returning his rental car and they went to the terminal together to check their bags. The bag check and security lines were crowded, just like Hillary had warned.

Wanda was trying to recall the details of the dream, and she pored over them as she and her friends waited in the slow-moving lines. Hillary kept turning back to ask if she was okay, and then Natasha had to call out to her to get her to go to the bag-check desk. 

Steve and Sam and Bucky had all appeared to have just been in a fight, she observed as she and Natasha walked directly towards Security with their carry-on bags. What had happened? What kind of a machine was Bucky trapped in? Steve and Sam were wearing civilian clothes. Where was Sam’s Falcon suit? Where was Cap’s shield? Something was wrong, terribly wrong.

Coulson and Hillary were checking their larger bags and would go through the private security lane. While Wanda and Natasha waited in the public line to go through security, Wanda’s mind was all muddy from the dream. 

Steve hadn’t been particularly happy to see Bucky in the dream. Not that she recalled. And Bucky wasn’t in much of a position to rejoice to see his friend again, if he at all felt inclined to that. All she had felt from all three of them was panic, worry, and fear. This reunion was less than ideal. Why was Sam so distrustful of Tony Stark? What were the “accords” that Sam had mentioned? And who was the someone that Sam had mentioned that could help them?

Something about Wanda’s early-morning mind made her better able to make the connection. The Ant-man, of course! Sam would know him, or know of him, at least, and be in a position to ask him for help. 

But for what? Who had hurt Bucky? The Winter Soldier had numerous enemies, of course, but who had succeeded where others had--

“Wanda, are you awake?” Natasha turned suddenly to ask her.

“What? Oh, yes, I ...have some things on my mind,” Wanda said uncomfortably.

“It’s too early to be this deep in thought. We’re almost to security, so be ready.”

Up ahead, Wanda could see passengers dividing into several groups to go through the security portals, removing their shoes and jackets and placing their possessions in gray plastic trays. 

“Get your boarding pass and driver's’ license out,” said Natasha. “And you might need your passport. Did you bring it?” 

“No, it wasn’t with my effects.”

“Never mind. I’m not sure you’ll need it.” 

Wanda was standing in front of Natasha, about five people away from the front of the line where a security agent in a blue uniform shirt was checking IDs and boarding passes.  
When she got to the front, she handed her boarding pass and driver’s license to the officer, a black man with hair on his face and the side of his head but not the top. He scrutinized her license very carefully.

“Okay, go ahead,” he said to her, nodding. “Next, please.”

Wanda moved past the agent’s desk to a waiting table where she loaded her suitcase onto a conveyor belt and removed her coat, hat, shoes, and belt into a tray. A passing security agent reminded the passengers to empty their pockets. Wanda looked behind her to see where Natasha was at. A second security officer, a lean, white man with short blond hair had come forward, and he took Natasha by the arm to the security passage.

“Natasha?”

“This is standard procedure,” said Natasha. She looked up at the officer. “Can I hand her my bags?”

“No, ma’am,” said the security officer sternly. “We have to search those, too.”

A second officer, a woman with tan skin and dark hair in a ponytail braid, came up to take Natasha’s suitcase. They took Natasha through a small gate to one side of the giant scanner, and immediately several alarms rang out. 

But of course they would have. Natasha had physical enhancements in her body, including metal ones. 

Wanda went through the normal scanner without incident. While she was putting her shoes and her belt back on, she watched as Natasha received a pat-down from the blond security agent. A thorough pat-down, checking her bust and her bottom and everything in between and above and below. And he was wondering whether or not he should have her taken to a private room so she could take her clothes off and those could be searched as well.

Natasha looked over the security agent and made eye contact at Wanda. Wanda was furious, she almost wanted to cry. Sure, maybe Natasha had a checkered past, but she wasn’t carrying weapons or explosives on this trip. Her gear was being shipped separately. No one should be treated like that. She wasn’t one of the terrorists that these Americans were so afraid of. Wanda really wanted to use her powers to cast a mind spell on the security agent--make him fall asleep or forget what he was doing or just let her go. A part of her wanted to blast his internal organs into a million pieces. But Natasha looked back at Wanda and silently told her no. An airport was the worst place to do any of that. They needed to get home without any problems.

Off to one side two more security agents had laid Natasha’s carry-on bags, her purse and her suitcase, on a table. The contents of both were being opened up and searched through completely. The female one picked up a baby toy that Natasha had gotten for Nate and placed it roughly to one side.

“Please be careful,” said Natasha. “Some of those are fragile. I’m taking Christmas presents with me.”

The female agent looked back up at Natasha and glanced away quickly, but she was mentally making a snide remark to Natasha. The Black Widow had no respect.

Finally, Wanda put her coat back on and picked up her bags. She glanced behind at Natasha--the security agent had finally finished the pat-down. Natasha’s possessions were being handed back, but very roughly.

America was supposed to be the land of the free. But was this freedom? 

Coming away from the security area, Wanda saw Coulson and Hillary a distance away, talking. But Wanda waited for Natasha to come and join her. Natasha reappeared pulling her rolling suitcase behind her, wearing her leather jacket and holding her head up high.

“What was the matter?”

“I’m on several government watchlists. They know who I am, remember? I hacked all of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s files and dumped them on the net. So now every time I go to a public   
airport, I get searched. Because they know exactly who I am.”

“Does Steve know about this?”

“Yes.” Natasha stared ahead. In fact, Steve hated that Natasha had to go through the intense screening--not that she was going to confide this to Wanda. And she also didn’t say that she felt like she deserved it. She had been an enemy of the United States before. It was all right if they still treated her like one. But she needed to do her part if she wanted to keep her place in it--and that included suffering the consequences of her past mistakes.

As they crossed the floor, Hillary and Coulson got up to greet them. Coulson looked at them with concern. Natasha was completely unbothered by it all, but Coulson could easily tell that the experience had caused Wanda some distress.

“I should talk to Steve about getting security passes for you guys,” said Coulson as they started together to walk towards their gate.

“It’s all right, Coulson.”

“No, please let me. You shouldn’t have to do that.” 

“Coulson, I’d rather they searched me than let me take advantage of them. I’d rather they searched everyone the way they’re doing now than to let a hundred thousand threats   
walk right past them. You know that.”

“Wanna get something to eat?”

“I’m fine. You don’t need to make me feel better.”

“I could use a bite,” said Wanda. “Come on, Natasha.”

“We’ll get something sweet,” said Hillary. “That’ll lighten the mood.”

It was at least an hour before boarding time. Hillary led them to a Cinnabon shop not far from the security area. They each ordered a large cinnamon roll and hot drinks--  
chocolate for Hillary and coffee for the other three. Feeling much better, the four of them went to their gate.

Wanda ended up sleeping for most of that first flight from Phoenix to Atlanta. In Atlanta they switched planes to Washington, D.C. In D.C. Natasha and Wanda said goodbye to Hillary and Coulson. Coulson had hugs for both of them.

Then Natasha and Wanda had to wait about an hour for their flight to New York City. At LaGuardia airport they got on a flight to Rochester. The flight to Rochester was only an hour long. When the plane sank through the clouds, everything below was blanketed in white. A light snow was falling. Wanda had to clasp her hands over her mouth with joy: it was magical.

“I’ll bet you’re glad you’ve got that coat,” said Natasha just before they landed. 

The plane was crowded and it took forever to get off, but the flight attendants wished them all Happy Holidays as they disembarked. Natasha and Wanda found their way through the Rochester airport quickly, the song ‘Winter Wonderland’ playing over the intercom.

Natasha called Steve on the phone once they had landed. Apparently he had come to pick them up. He pulled right up to the curb in his car just as they were emerging from the doors of the airport. And he got out to help them with their bags even though it probably wasn’t necessary. But he got to hug them anyway.

Wanda did feel kind of awkward, since she had dreamed about Steve last night. But seeing him in person and seeing that he was okay actually cheered her up.

Steve loaded their bags in the trunk of his car and complimented Wanda’s coat. Natasha took shotgun and Wanda got in the back. Steve had the heater going full blast.

“So how was your Thanksgiving?” Natasha asked Steve.

“It was pretty good. The extended family treated me all right. Picking you guys up was actually pretty convenient for me on the way back.”

“I’ll say, if it saves you a two-hour drive.”

“Yeah, no kidding. How was your Thanksgiving?”

“It was pretty good. The Tanner family treated us royally, meaning they let us sleep on the couch. Not the most comfortable couch in the world, but apparently it’s the same one your friend slept on.”

“But other than the couch?”

“Yeah. It was great.”

Natasha and Steve got to talking about Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Wanda’s eyes wandered outside the car window to the town of Rochester and the rolling fields and hills and forests they passed beyond it. The bad dream she’d had last night seemed a world away now. It was so much easier to forget. And she badly wanted to believe what Hillary had said, that it was just a dream. When she got home, she told herself, she’d wrap up in her blanket and drink some hot chocolate, maybe watch a movie on Netflix, but for the most part just focus on the good things she had in her life right now...


End file.
